I am currently sitting in bed eating easy mac trying to think of the words for this Valentine’s Day post. Honestly I have been struggling with this post for awhile now because Valentine’s Day is one of those days where you either hide under a rock and wait until February 15th rolls around or you wear all pink and gush about hearts.

 Some of you are already aware that Aaron lives in Ohio and I am in Georgia. It’s kind of strange that our first Valentine’s Day together will be spent without each other. I did have some beautiful roses delivered to my desk this morning from him. He’s the sweetest in general and I am not exaggerating when I say he makes me smile every single day. Thank you for always making me feel special and supporting my flower obsession.   I would love to be able to drink wine, eat cookies and watch a cheesy romcom with him, but I suppose that will have to wait and he is off the hook this year. Even though we are in different states I still wanted to send him something, so he has a pretty great and practical gift coming his way. I would say what it is on here but he reads my posts and I don’t want to ruin the surprise! 

Some of you may follow me on Instagram (emilyvdw) but for those who do not I wanted to share a tradition that is so special to me.

This would be Eric van der Walde’s Valentine’s day tradition.  My poor dad found himself in a household with three strong willed  daughters and a social butterfly of a wife. So he must have realized very early on that the best way to make us happy was through chocolate and flowers. Ever since I can remember he would buy my mom the most beautiful bouquet of flowers and give my sisters and I our own chocolates with a card. Each year my mom would walk into the kitchen and act just as surprised to see the flowers as the previous year. I remember being six or seven years old and sitting at the kitchen table starring at the flowers. I am not completely positive what I was thinking, but I do remember hoping that one day I would receive some flowers like the ones my mom gushed over. Once I got a little older my dad switched my Valentine’s gift to flowers. I don’t know if my dad knew that his simple act of giving me flowers on Valentine’s Day every year would mean so much. Or how no matter which state I live in I know every Valentine’s Day he is thinking about me. Every time I see a box of flowers with my name on it the first person who comes to my mind is my dad.

So this year, like clockwork I receive a beautiful bouquet of flowers with a note from my dad that simply said, “Happy Valentine’s Day. I love you, Dad.” And just like every other year a huge smile comes across my face, I snap a picture of the flowers to send to my dad and anything bad or stressful that happened that day suddenly slips from my mind. Because Dad’s really do have the power to make their daughter’s day, no matter how old they are or far away they live.

I hope you all have a wonderful day. XOXOX.