Valentine's Day Celebrations

Happy Valentine’s Day friends and family (a little belated)!  Once again this year, we found that Germany does not celebrate Valentine’s Day like the USA does; it is not over-commercialized and the focus is more on Saint Valentine (see below an excerpt from Wikipedia), rather than on chocolate, decorations, gifts, cards, and a romantic dinner out.  As a family, we prefer the USA’s way of celebrating the 14^th of February:)!!!  Thus, we kept the celebration of Valentine’s traditional!!

The girls made homemade Valentine's Day cards for Daddy!

Due to the lack of Valentine's Day decorations, we had to make our own:)!!  

The finished product.

"Thank you Papa Donavon and Nana Becky for the new Valentine's Day outfits, Dora DVD and Eiffel Tower window cling!!"

Elle insisted on sleeping in her new outfit, so she would be ready to school the next morning:)!!  She put Dora pajamas overtop her outfit.  Luckily, Elle does not have to wear a uniform on Fridays!!

Valentine's Day morning!!  A little sisterly love seems appropriate on such a morning!!!

Britta received a rose, leaving my gym, in recognition of Saint Valentine.

Later that afternoon, we went out for hot chocolate!

I would have been one cheap Valentine's Day date IF I would have ordered the VETTER 33!!!

The sweetest Valentine in the entire world.  I love you Matt.  Thank you for being a wonderful husband, Daddy and friend. 

Matt's Valentine's Day gift to me was a new coat, unfortunately, by the time we were done eating on Valentine's all of the stores were closed.  Thus, Britta and I just had to go shopping on Friday:)!

Some stores do try and capitalize on the American-style Valentine's Day:)!

“Saint Valentine (in Latin, Valentinus) is a widely recognized third century Roman saint commemorated on February 14 and associated since the High Middle Ages with a tradition of courtly love. Nothing is reliably known of St. Valentine except his name and the fact that he died on February 14 on Via Flaminia in the north of Rome. It is uncertain whether St. Valentine is to be identified as one saint or two saints of the same name. Several differing martyrologies have been added to later hagiographies that are unreliable. For these reasons this liturgical commemoration was not kept in the Catholic calendar of saints for universal liturgical veneration as revised in 1969.[2] But the "Martyr Valentinus who died on the 14th of February on the Via Flaminia close to the Milvian bridge in Rome" still remains in the list of officially recognized saints for local veneration.[3] Saint Valentine's Church in Rome, built in 1960 for the needs of the Olympic Village, continues as a modern, well-visited parish church.[4]

Today, Saint Valentine's Day, also known as the Feast of Saint Valentine, is an official feast day in the Anglican Communion,[5] as well as in the Lutheran Church.[6] In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Saint Valentine the Presbyter is celebrated on July 6 [7] and Hieromartyr Saint Valentine (Bishop of Interamna, Terni in Italy) is celebrated on July 30.[8] Notwithstanding, because of the relative obscurity of this western saint in the East, members of the Greek Orthodox Church named Valentinos (male) or Valentina (female) may celebrate their name day on the Western ecclesiastical calendar date of February 14.[9]”