love each other

I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. 
Yes, your joy will overflow! This is my commandment:  

Love each other 

in the same way I have loved you.  
There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

^{{John 15: 11-13}}

For valentine's day this year we shared loved with each other. We swapped our traditional breakfast of pancakes for a pan of Patrick's cinnamon rolls {also known as cinnavances around here} covered in a heap of extra icing for good measure. On the table we left little packages for the boys, the Incredible Hulk superhero William has been pining for and a set of blank canvases for my sweet budding artist Henry. The boys brought their signed cards to school to give their classmates and I attended a "love tea" at William's preschool for the children and their moms. In the evening, we pored over their boxes of Valentine cards and candy from their friends at school, and Patrick made me a homemade pot of creamy tomato soup for dinner. It tasted just like my favorite bowl at Biaggi's. It was a delicious way to end a sweet day.

I think the command "love each other" is something that children intrinsically just get. They have such a great need to receive love and such a desire to share their love with others. This year I saw such an eagerness in my boys to share love during Valentine's Day. They shared in ways that they were able, creating cards for great grandparents, cutting and tying and hot gluing and signing Valentines for classmates, surprising Patrick and I with little hearts and handwritten I love you's. My hope is that we can continue to find little ways (and big ones) to love each other, inspired by the love we're reminded we shared during this sweet month.