About a week before Valentine’s day the kids started talking about our Valentine’s mailboxes. We have two mailboxes and we put them out the night before Valentine’s day and in the morning the kids open them to find a little something for each of the kids – like a Christmas stocking or birthday bucket. I’m not even sure when or why this tradition started.

Traditions are funny that way. Sometimes we’re very intentional about them and other times we happen to do it two years in a row and suddenly it’s a tradition that we could never seem to stray from (at least in the eyes of our kids).

This year I put Hallie in charge of putting out the decor the night before (she even went as far to make pink cotton candy for all her siblings and friends at school). She got to pull what she wanted from the Valentine bin from the garage and decorate as such. After she was well on her way, I joined her in the kitchen as she reminisced about everything she pulled from the bin. “I remember when we got this…I have a picture with this from when I was little.”

She asked how long we had had all of the decorations – most of which we had before Hunter was born. In my Pottery Barn Kids employee days when I stocked up on any and all holiday decor – most of which we still have for every holiday!

I used to decorate weeks before Valentine’s and then I realized I liked a clean slate after Christmas decor came down so Valentine decor gets 24 hours of shining glory. We love it, it’s festive and by the next morning it’s going back in the box only to be loved again next year for 24 hours.

The kids think it’s amazing and they can’t seem to stop talking about these two simple mailboxes. A pink one and a red one. Mailboxes that were only meant to be decor but at some point we put a little gift in it and it became a beloved tradition. Like I said before – some traditions are intentional, others are not – but I suppose it doesn’t make it any less of a tradition – especially in the eyes of my children.