Valentine's Day party

We had a valentine-making party at Le Ranch* . We spent a lot of time explaining to non-Americans that yes, this is an American tradition, and no, usually it's not adults doing it. I for one found it amazing that not everyone learns how to fold a piece of paper and cut out a heart as soon as they can hold a pair of scissors... and then cut out 23 more for everyone else in the class!

Not everyone was able to come to the party and some were quite sorely missed. But we had a great time continuing the tradition that J and I started at Aberdeen (at least, we started the Aberdeen version of the tradition, though J may have started it before then elsewhere for all I know...). We made each other a lot of rather eclectic valentines, many of which are displayed below. Okay, they don't look that eclectic from far away, but we were cutting out random words from magazines in three languages, see?


I didn't get a photo of the cookies Ca helped me make... yes, my favorite cutout cookies. Lacking heart-shaped cookie cutters, we used pink glaze to draw hearts on the white glaze, with predictable results. Ju very kindly said they looked "ephemeral." That they were.

*This is what we are calling our place, outrageous French pronunciation crucial.