Valentine’s Far From Home
By Stephanie Olsen, Fri Dec 9th
“What shall we make grandma and grandpa for Valentine’s Day?”
This is an oft-repeated question as February 14th draws near;and despite being another highly commercialized holiday, it isstill a nice way for geographically separated families to touchbase.
Although e-mail is invaluable, homemade cards from grandchildren- gluey, misspelt and smudged, delivered in crumpled envelopeswith upsidedown stamps - are the wishes that will be caressed bygentle hands, hung on the fridge under hatted cow magnets, andproudly shown to passers-by.
My own daughter knows that her grandma is a jigsaw puzzleexpert, so she glued a teddy bear picture to a red constructionpaper heart, with little messages of love written around theperiphery. With great care, tongue tip protruding to steady herhand, she then cut the artwork into several large pieces.Proudly, dumping her homemade puzzle into an envelope, we wentto the post office hand in hand.
We press flowers, collected on warm walks and summer picnics,haphazardly collecting them in any book on hand. It’s always alovely treat when fragile petals float from a page we’rereading, and sometimes we glue these decorations of nature tohomemade Valentine’s Day cards sharing colorful memories ofspring.
Children grow up fast, and grandparents miss the little things -like a first lost tooth, a new smile. One fun way to sendpictures is to decorate cards with sunshines and flowers,replacing round centers with cut-out faces of the grandkids.There’s no better way to wish the folks Happy Valentine’s Daythan to have a garden of your children’s faces beaming up atthem.
About the author:Stephanie Olsen, published writer, homeschooling mother of twoand ESL teacher currently residing in Europe, is also owner ofthe expatriate site, Family Life Abroad http://www.familylifeabroad.com where you’ll find humorous andinformative articles by experienced expatriates on all aspectsof living abroad, with lots of links and travel tips.
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