12 Days of Valentines

I wanted to do something a little different and special for Eric for Valentine's Day this year. I had a friend post on her blog a couple years back about doing 12 Days of Valentines for her husband. I finally thought through things in advance and did some more Pinterest and Google searching for ideas and came up with 12 things to give to Eric on the days leading up to Valentine's Day.

Day 1: a love letter
We both recently read Julianne Donaldson's Proper Romance novels "Edenbrooke" and "Blackmoore," so I wrote him a love letter that was in the regency style and even sealed it with wax and a stamp (which Eric happened to give to me as a gift when we were dating!).

Day 2: a menu for our Valentine's dinner for 2 (and I meant to give a bottle of sparkling juice with it, but I couldn't find one in time)

Day 3: a valentine written in three "punny" ways
One of his favorite candies is Swedish Fish, so I gave him a bag of them with these three sayings to go with it: "You are quite a catch, Valentine!" "I saw you, and I was HOOKED!" and "You are o-FISH-ally my valentine!"

Day 4: a candy bar representing each of our 4 children

Day 5: five "rings" on the phone during the day

Day 6: a new family photo with all 6 of us for him to put in his office

Day 7: new sheets for our bed to sleep on all seven nights of the week

Day 8: 8 "Riesens" why I love him, with small bag of 8 Riesen chocolate caramels

Day 9: word art with "I love you" in 9 different languages

Day 10: a letter with 10 different memories from our 10 years of marriage

Day 11: 11 Red Vines hearts with toothpick "arrows" shot through them (another one of his favorite treats)

He gave me a bouquet of scented lotions--the perfect gift for me!

Day 12: 12 kisses (not the chocolate kind!)

I had other ideas of bigger gifts to give him along the way, but I just didn't have time to get them ready. It was all worth it from just the first day, though: I had left my little love letter for Eric on his pillow. He came home from work and changed his clothes and found the letter while he was upstairs. He came downstairs and practically ran to me, scooped me up into a big hug, and gave me a big kiss. He had a huge smile on his face...and I was so happy!