From one holiday to the next..

I finally got around to taking my Christmas decorations and tree down yesterday.  I love Christmas and usually put it up early, this year it was before Thanksgiving, and then leave it up awhile after as well.  I was ready to take it down and get the house back to normal again.  So yesterday in the morning our house looked like this:

And by afternoon it was all put away and it looked like this:

Ok, so it's not back to normal, but we've moved on to the next holiday...Chinese New Year/Valentine's Day.  Chinese New Year is the first few days of February this year and Valentines is soon after...so I combined the 2 in my decor...We don't celebrate Chinese New Year...except have 2 days off of work for Jeremy...and Valentine's Day isn't huge here...but I want my kids to have memories of different holidays.  Since the more american holidays aren't really celebrated all that much here, I'm trying to do whatever I can to give my kids a feeling of what the holiday is supposed to be like.  So...I try to do different crafts and activities that lend themselves to the holidays...

So, soon we'll be getting out the red and pink paper soon and the heart cookie cutters and getting down to having fun...I'll keep you posted with what we do...In the meantime, here's some shots of some simple decor from around the house...it's mostly for Valentine's Day, just the cherry blossoms are for Chinese New Year, but I thought they went well with the heart decor...and they have a springy feel!! (We don't have seasons here either..so I gotta make it feel whatever season it is..it gets tricky sometimes!!)

Hope you're having fun thinking about the ones you love, and how you're going to celebrate Valentine's Day!!