Valentines Day

Yesterday was Valentines Day, but it felt more like Christmas.  A month ago I shipped myself three big boxes from Utah because I couldn't carry all my Christmas stuff home on the airplane.  After waiting and waiting, the boxes finally arrived.  It was like opening all my presents all over again.

I forgot that I got a hot water bottle, or that Tiago got a toy guitar.  Or a little music box.

A few things that I did remember, that I was thrilled to finally get, were:

• a spatula with the conversion chart right on it. I never remember conversions, and hate having to look it up on my ipad because my dirty fingers inevitably gets my screen dirty.  I referenced this within 4 hours of opening it.  (how many tbsp in a cup?)

• a back scratcher... my back always itches in the winter. And every time I wanted to scratch it during the last month I thought, if only my boxes had arrived.

• a huuuuge stock pot.  Now I can make some huuuuge batches of soup [for 1].  I'm looking forward to not having my soups boil over onto my stove in the future, like they always did when I used my normal sauce pan.

• my babushka scarf.  I've wanted to wear it (not on my head) multiple times and now I actually can.

• And last but not least, Tiago's bouncer!  I've missed this!  He probably hasn't because I don't think that his memory really works yet (besides remembering my face).  But they've become reacquainted in the last 24 hours and he has made up for lost time.  [sidenote: he finally fits into this shirt that Hyrum's Tia Cecilia sent him!  It says "Hello, I'm new here" in German. haha  She lives in Hamburg, and speaks German, of course.]

As if all that -and a bunch of clothes- weren't enough to make Christmas  Valentines Day great, I got one more present.  Last week I asked Hyrum if he liked these sandals, and he said, "Yes, let me buy them for you for Valentines Day."  awwww.  And then they actually showed up at the post office on the 14th.  (Shockingly fast for the mail here.)  I'm hoping they'll carry me all around Europe this summer.  It already has me dreaming of warm weather.

And lest you think the day was all about me, I did send Hyrum a package.  But I don't deem the contents (lots of chocolate) exciting enough to blog about.  It wasn't a traditional V-day because the only romance around here was a 30 minute Skype call that intermittently dropped, but I love my husband and I'm glad all this fun stuff arrived yesterday to make the day more special.