Love

This is my Love banner.  Each month we focus on a virtue from the book Standing for Something by Gordon B. Hinckley.  January's virtue was Optimism.  February is Love (duh!)  I left the top of the heart open so people can leave little love notes in it.  Of course this banner says "Shkurt" because that is February in Albanian.  

One of my readers asked me to explain more about the Family Celebrations we have during the year.  We have a large extended family and celebrating everyone's birthday in turn leads to a LOT of cake.  We decided to cut down on the celebrate and combine some things.  Several years ago my mother started having a Fall Festival.  We used to go a cider mill every fall when we lived in Michigan.  We loved watching the cider press and eating the donuts. My mother wanted to recreate this for us and her grandchildren. Originally we were just celebrating the season.  

Last summer more of my siblings moved to Virginia.  Things were getting complicated because three siblings lived in Richmond and three in the Charlottesville area.  People would be stopping by at my mom's house and try to get everyone together.  We hated missing each other and decided we needed to coordinate better. We had a brainstorming session and decided on a few celebrations we would have every year.  Here's how it breaks down.

Winter Celebration in February - we celebrate all the winter birthdays, play in the snow (if we have any), play basketball, celebrate fruits and veggies of the winter season, do handwork and put on plays.  (this is our first attempt, which is happening on Saturday.  I'll let you know how it goes).  I am taking on the hosting of this celebration

Spring Festival close to Easter - again we celebrate all spring birthdays, celebrate the season. Cookies will be the featured dessert. (we haven't had one of these yet, but I'll update it when we do).  We plan to also celebrate Children's Day (this is June 1st in Albania).  My three sisters and their families who live in the Charlottesville area will host this.

Mother's Day - We have a specific menu that the men prepare for this day.  Chinese Chicken Salad being my favorite part.  We also plan to have cheesecake, berries and whipped cream for dessert.    

Father's Day - We will celebrate with pies and cobblers because our fathers seem to really love those things.

Summer Celebration - to be celebrated before my brother's kids go back to Arizona for the school year.  We go to my sister's house that lives near the beach.  We hang out at the beach then return to her house.  We celebrate all the summer birthday's and my brother's kids birthdays.  Ice cream is the featured dessert.

Fall Festival - celebrated when the leaves begin to turn.  The featured dessert is donuts.  We also have apple and pumpkin desserts.  We had something like a carnival last year.  It was very geared towards children.  We also had a bonfire with delicious food.

We also celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas together.  We are adjusting this as we go. I hope that was enough detail.

Since we are focusing on love this month.  Here's something I LOVE!