Dear Elena, my love…
This month we celebrate a very unique holiday because its theme is the word I just called you, LOVE. We have talked about love so much in our discussions, and, of course, who can forget your first full statement, I love you! Our holiday is Valentine’s Day celebrated every year on February 14th. Our book - Dr. Seuss’s classic, Lovey Things stars two of Dr. Seuss’ famous characters - Thing 1 and Thing 2 and is all about how they express love for each other.
Now, dearest Elena, what can be tricky to understand is there are different types of love because of different loving relationships. For example, there’s romantic love, like the love between Mommy and Daddy and Coco and Papa. Then there’s love for your family, like how I feel for you, my beautiful daughter, or how Daddy and Mommy feel about our sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Also, there is love between friends, like Mommy’s feelings about Auntie Jen, your Godmother Auntie Rachael, and other great friends. All of these loves are unique. Valentine’s Day is the day we can express our love and gratitude to all these precious people in our lives.
In LOVEY THINGS our characters want to show some love to you. They blow kisses. God knows the thousands of kisses Daddy and I have given you. They also love to hug each other. Like kisses, hugs express love. On Valentine’s Day, we spend time with the people we love. There might be a date that ends with a sweet kiss, or an amazing dinner party with friends or family and have the best time ever! There might be a box of chocolates or a bright bouquet of flowers. The Things take paper and glue and make paper valentines.
Now, in our family, Valentine’s Day is a VERY special holiday. It is the day Coco and Papa got married in 1970. Yes! They’ve been married 53 whole years and have one of the most amazing marriages with love that never stops. In fact, your Mommy wore Coco’s wedding dress to her wedding, hoping it would bring beautiful happiness and longevity to her marriage, just like Coco and Papa.
Now, back to love, one of my favorite love songs says, “It can break your heart in pieces, put it back together again.” How can this be? How can one feeling be so contradictory? This is the nature of love. It is such a strong emotion that people have spent their lifetime trying to understand its nature. Mommy would not be doing justice to love to say she knew how to completely explain it. All I know is that my love for you is one of the strongest feelings I’ve ever had, and it seems to grow stronger every day. In fact, Mommy believes love is connected to God, and that love will always outlast and be stronger than hate. So, it’s not at all surprising that there’s a holiday dedicated entirely to love.
Happy Valentine’s my Moonpie, the name that expresses my love for you because you are the sun, the moon, and the stars to me. Please know, my sweet girl, that these Conversations are my Valentines to you, the whole year through.
Love, Love and more Love forever,
Mommy
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