Secret someone(s)

Today is February first! And not only is this wonderful because a very special person was born the 25th of February (*cough*cough ME!)  I now only have 24 days till my birthday! I am a big fan of birthdays... especially my own.  The other reason  February is special is because of this little holiday that happens on the 14th, we call it Valentines Day.  In our family (the O'Brien clan that is) we started celebrating Valentines Day long before the 14th. It all started this day, the first of February.  Mother started something called "secret someone". To be completely honest I don't really remember how it all came about* (I am one of the babies you know; sometimes that means I don't know how some of the family traditions started I just know that we do them!) Are you curious about this  "secret someone" tradition? Well, let me tell you all about it. (If you are not curious you can stop reading for that is all I am going to be talking about. Just thought I'd let you know!)
Every year on the first of February all of us kids would all put our names in a hat, mix the names up, and then draw a name out of the hat (if it was yours you put it back in and drew out another).  From the first of February till the 14th you would do special things for this person, make their bed, do a chore that is typically done by them, buy or make them a special "treat" and where you left this treat or made their bed you would simply leave a note with "S.S." on  it, that way they would know their "secret someone" had left or done it for them.  Over the years we started to get pretty good at disguising our hand writing or finding a "sub" hand writer (they would write the notes for your person and you would write the notes for theirs) so then your "secret someone" would be all confused as to who had them.  Since we have 10 kids in the family it started getting pretty hard to guess who your "secret someone" was.  On the 14th of February we would reveal who we had but not without a big guessing game first! Mom would always prepare a yummy Valentine's dinner and after dinner the guessing would begin! We would all go around the table and guess who we thought our "secret someone" was.  After all the guessing was complete we would reveal who we had by giving our S.S. one last gift in front of them after dinner.

Looking back on such fun memories I also realize how much I learned (or was taught without ever realizing it).  I learned that their are so many different kinds of "love" and romantic love should not be the only kind of love to be celebrated. I spent almost all my Valentine's Days with my family. Whether that be from my young single years or years that my husband is not around. I am still celebrating love. I am still with the ones I love. It is a different kind of love but it is love nonetheless and that should not be belittled. If you are going to be celebrating Valentines Day without a "significant other" this year I would encourage you to look at the love(s) that do surround you this year family, friends, and our God of love.  I would encourage you to not believe the lie of our culture that says the only love to celebrate is romantic love because that is simply not true.  I also think so often people just think of Valentine's Day as a commercial holiday and I understand why they feel that way with all the gifts, cards, chocolate, fake red hearts ect. But, one of the things I learned during those "secret someone" years is that you can take something so "commercialized" and turn it into something unique and fun. Who says you have to have a romantic date on Valentine's Day? Have a movie night! Or game night with friends.  To be honest me and my husband don't do anything amazing on Valentines Day (part of that is because we celebrate our engagement anniversary two days later) but every day is a day to celebrate and be thankful for the loves in our lives. So, let's be creative and maybe do something a little different with these "commercial holidays" OR go on a date with that "significant other" that is okay too ;)