Every day should be a 'holiday/reason/opportunity' to celebrate love! And April 18th is my family 's special holiday to honor and celebrate all the love in our life🎉
Did you know that's TLC motto?... Celebrating the beauty of the families we live with, communities we live in and Earth we live on! And this blog post is going to be a little different... a peek into my life, my family and not 1 'professional' picture here. All cell phone picture capturing some precious memories throughout the years.
OK- full disclosure (it's not a secret) I love to celebrate! Who doesn't love a good celebration? Well I've loved to celebrate "the little things" for a long time now, before I even knew about all those "National Holidays" (I found out about those a few years ago and have been celebrating THAT MUCH MORE, ever since. I never told anyone but about 4 years ago I even submitted an application for LOVE DAY to be a National Holiday... still waiting for that to happen). I'm pretty sure my love of celebrating started in my childhood. Being Hispanic and growing up with the beautiful culture... they like to PARTY! Fiestas for birthdays, cousins birthdays, Sundays, rites of passages (quinceaneras), because it's Friday, and on and on and on. AND my Mom always threw the best birthday parties for us too. So growing up with all those celebrations imprinted my heart and has continued to grow. So this is how R Love Day celebration was born...
It was a beautiful spring day in Chico, California, 2006. Life was great - my husband and I were newlyweds, I was going to graduate college with honors the next month (the first one in my family on BOTH sides - talk about a party!) and we had just found out we were pregnant. I went to check the mail and something really weird happened... we received 3 cards from different people for different things, all full of love! As I read the cards, I felt so overwhelmed with love and gratitude.
Ok - so after gushing over these cards (who gets 3 awesome cards? out of the blue? on the same day?) my husband came home from work and the first thing he said was "guess what? I heard 3 SONGS from our wedding today!" And that was that. I showed him the cards and told him we should celebrate all the love in our life on April 18th, every year... and we have ever since!
Love day is our day to celebrate all the love in our lives and we also like to create a 'token of love" to share with loved ones too. I've had a lot of fun creating something different and unique through the years from videos, to cards, to "glitter bombs" (that I thought would be a fun reminder of our love as they found glitter in their house throughout the year, but didn't get much feedback on that one, haha), to house parties celebrating our family and friends. Every year is different- every celebration varies... we've gone away for weekend trips (SURPRISE, we're going to Lake Tahoe), hiking and ice cream trips, bowling, picnic (& food fight) in the tree house, surprise weekend away to Santa Cruz and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Jelly Belly Factory, couples massages/pampering day <my favorite>, and last year we planned on starting "R Big Life Adventure" move across the country on Love Day but selling our house/ escrow and divine intervention had other plans which pushed us out a week or so. So last year we celebrated at Benihana's.
And that's our Love Day story. We enjoy our special little holiday every year - something not sponsored by Hallmark with inflated flower prices and full dinner reservations, but our unique time to appreciate our family and friends and the abundance of love in our life. Here's a little peek into a few of our past Love Day celebrations:
This year was our first time celebrating Love Day in Ohio and we are also right in the middle of a big home renovation so we stayed local, enjoyed the festivities together and shared our special holiday in our new Ohio life too! I'm in love with how the cards turned out and ended up sending out 50 of them (confession: each year, in the middle of creating these handmade cards/creations, it can feel overwhelming. BUT I just have to remind myself how blessed and grateful I am to have so many loved ones to celebrate and create these for, fills me up and rejuvenates me every time!). This year's card was inspired YEARS AGO: So, I've been on a kick for a few years now about learning other people's 'Bucket List'. As a big dreamer myself, I love to hear others' dreams too so this year I introduced a reincarnated idea, "The Living Celebration List" (Bucket List has always felt so morbid to me).
"Life is a precious gift and the world is our playground, let's get to Living the Celebrations (& jot our big and small dreams down)!"
Love Day festivities: We started the day with a "Love Day" basket of gifts for the family, then dropped off donuts for the staff at each of my kid's school. Later that day I brought donuts for our church (I gotta think of a better alternative than these sugary devils, but they're SO CONVENIENT).
|
|
I was commissioned months ago to create a piece of art of my daughter's Montessori "Children's House" class for their annual fundraiser auction in March, and have been planning on making this piece for the teachers ever since. Last week I had the preschoolers draw hearts and "sign" a mat and then put it all together for the 2 incredible teachers which I gave to them for Love Day, and they did LOVE IT! Funny thing about giving: it really does feel so good to give - much better than to receive, although one can "receive" a lot when giving so it's a double WIN!
We made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for our neighborhood Safety Department and enjoyed delivering those to the heroes of our community!
Lucjily, it was a gorgeous day so we were able to walk around our neighborhood delivering Love Day cards.
Turns out, we celebrated at HIBATCHI again- we love us some hibatchi (& trying out new restaurants too)!
And that's a wrap! A peek into our Love Day, how it started and what it's all about! I hope that our little family holiday has inspired you. Today, on Love Day (April 18) or any day you feel moved... share your love; write a card, give a hug, call a friend, make cookies for your local heores, volunteer your time somewhere out of the norm - because you never know the impact it'll have on some else's life. And if you already do, I'D LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT IT! Does your family have a special holiday they celebrate? Or, how do you celebrate love in your life? Comment or message me
Happy Love Day & Lots of Love from my family to yours!
"Let all you do be done in love" 1 Cor 16:4
Sign up for the TLC Exclusive & stay up to date on new artwork, shows AND receive FREE SHIPPING off your first order (+ some extra TLC in your inbox too)!