Family History Valentine’s Day Decorations

After Christmas, my 5 year old was devastated to take down the tree, lights, and ornaments. So we quickly replaced the Christmas tree with our Valentine’s Day decorations! A couple years ago I started decorating for Valentine’s Day with old (and new) family photos of weddings. These are some of my favorite wedding photos from our family:

Here’s how I decorated last year:

And this is what I came up with this year:

I framed a pretty card that I saved from our wedding. The rest are pictures of my parents, grandparents, and my husband’s grandparents.

At the piano I used pictures from my own engagement and wedding. My son was excited to hear Mommy and Daddy’s love story. He’s always so glad to hear how we got married and always says, “And then you had a baby! Me!”

 

Love stories are such a significant part of every family’s story. I’d like to compile my parents’ and grandparents’ wedding stories  into a book someday. If only I had the stories of how all my 1st and 2nd great grandparents met and were married. Some of the ones I do know about are so fun. I know my great grandmother Irma met her husband Charlie when they played in a band together. He played the fiddle and she played the piano. My great grandmother Florence barely knew Edward when she took the train from Springville, Utah to Burley, Idaho to marry him and settle in his one room cabin.

My 4th great grandmother, Myra Mayall had a dream of the man she would one day marry. Family legend even says that she was planning to run away with a Scotsman when she read the bestselling  Charlotte Temple by Susanna Rowson about a young woman who is seduced by a soldier and then abandoned.

Apparently Myra decided against her plan to run away with the Scotsman and married my 4th great grandfather, William Henrie, the man she saw in a dream. When she met William, she recognized him as the person she had dreamt about.

I’m glad we get to have our home decorated with these special family memories all month. I like having them out so we can talk about the precious moments that are such important parts of our history. Happy Valentine’s Day (in one month)!