Not Another Mother Runner: My Valentine

While I realize a lot of people scoff at Valentine's Day, it has always been a favorite holiday of mine because of its simplicity and positive message of love. When I was a child, I looked forward to exchanging Valentines with my classmates, each of whom I matched to what I felt was the appropriate picture drawn on the cards that I so carefully chose each year. In high school, I searched the Val-o-grams posted on the walls and snuck the heart on which my several-year crush's name was written into my backpack when no one was watching.

Now as an adult, I love surprising my girls and James with something simple but thoughtful. They always know I love them, but their extra excitement when finding a new pencil holder filled with chocolate and the handmade Valentines waiting for them fills me with that warm fuzzy feeling that just makes my day a beautiful one.

Today, though, James was the star of my show. In addition to a fancy new camera, he surprised me with the most amazing gift - he had all the photographs I had stored on both the hard drive and the backup drive that crashed restored. My memories that had fogged over during my postpartum illness were captured on camera but have been lost for several years, and I thought that I would never see them again.

First, he handed me an envelope with a stack of favorite memories printed, then he gave me the new hard drive with the thousands of restored photos. This is, without a doubt, the most meaningful gift I could have imagined.