A Valentine Party
Valentine Day was one of the surprises we had during our fist year on New Jersey. Not having made much fuss about it during our years in Europe and considering it a day dedicated to romantic love, we never gave it a second thought as a couple with young children and no sitter would.
We were swamped with cards, and, completely ignorant we were supposed to, we had not sent a single one. Valentine Day was about love, not only romantic love but friendship and brotherly love also. Children exchange cards at school with friends and friends exchange cards and small tokens between them.
A Valentine Party invitation
There was also a heart shaped invitation for a kids Valentine party. The obvious topic, hearts, cherubs and cupids, and costumes were welcomed.
The party
Costumes, walls and tables were decorated with hearts. A hand painted heart shaped box full of chocolate candy welcomed you on arrival. There were also some of those headbands with two silly hearts on a spring and cupid bows and arrows for those kids with no costume –very thoughtful.
Some blind man’s buff game where a blindfolded cupid had to chase and bring together a boy and a girl was played to everyone’s merriment. Another that involved a kid going out of the room while the others organized themselves, then coming back and shouting a number to exchange a kiss with the child that had that number did not succeed due to the unwillingness of the years old kids to exchange kisses.
The family room was opened and offered some possibilities for entertainment, but every other film or electronic game, except friendship movies and puzzles involving hearts, had been smuggled out.
When it was time to go, the children received party bags filled with strawberry and cream sweets or bags full of heart shaped chocolates wrapped in red and pink foil.
A Valentine table
The tablecloth was covered with muslin. A few golden fruits and leaves on top were suitably romantic decorations. Silk paper hearts in all shades of pink and red were scattered as flower petals. The trays were lined with fake lace with heart patterns.
There was a mixture of red and printed red hearts on a white background in the paper plates and napkins.
Valentine party food
No ordinary drinks on the table, only love potions, and the food was supposed to be charmed to bring friends together.
Love potions
All the drinks were sweet: the normal lemony soda had been colored light pink, probably with some grenadine; a selection of sodas was leaning heavily on the cherry and vanilla flavors, and pink grapefruit juice and a raspberry light smoothie were the healthy option.
Charmed food
All the magical food was hearth shaped or had some red color. The table displayed heart shaped and arrow shaped sandwiches with ham pate filling. Savory crackers with cheese, ham, smoked salmon, and salami cut in heart shapes were topped with cream cheese and little tomato and cucumber hearts in contrasting colors.
Soon after came heart shaped pizzas with red toppings, such as roasted red peppers or salami, and grilled cheese toasts also in a heart shape.
A sweethearts party should have plenty of sweet treats, on that department was difficult to decide between the heart melting cookies, the cherry pie with a heart design on the crust, or the heart shaped cake with cream cheese icing.
Back to food in the United States, go to food in America or visit the food pantry.
