what we love the most.

Rob and I started out the new year on just the right note - in my opinion at least. We I slept in, we were blessed to worship together with our church family, we enjoyed some awesome rolls with lunch, we visited my cousin, her fiance and their beautiful baby girl who are visiting from New Mexico, we made it home before the weather turned too snowy, I watched Criminal Minds, Rob finished a book, and Mr. B ate snow balls.

The best part of the night, though, was reading our "I love you" gifts that we wrote throughout December. In an effort to be intentional about recognizing the things we are most thankful for in one another, we decided to try out a little extra "gift" to celebrate Christmas this year. We were a bit late in opening it, but what's a day or two...or seven?

It's really as simple as this: 
          1. Cut some pieces of paper into strips (we chose red and green in the Christmas spirit);
          2. Label the paper with the dates of the month (we decided on December 1-25 with plans to read them on Christmas morning);
          3. Find a box or jar to hold the papers once you've written on them (see ours pictured above);
          4. Write down one thing you love about your spouse each day (sometimes we fell behind...);
          5. Enjoy reading them together and re-discovering what it is you love most about each other!
          6. After we read them, we sealed them up in an envelope to keep (along with future December notes) so that we can read them again years from now.

After we read each of the 25 "I love..." notes, we both realized that we weren't entirely surprised by what the other wrote down, but there were also some things that we didn't know were loved so much. We also seemed to notice a few themes running throughout the notes (i.e. commonly repeated topics).

What Rob (repeatedly) loves about Stephanie:                   What Stephanie (repeatedly) loves about Rob:
          1. Her creativity                                                                                            1. He loves to give hugs
          2. She loves to give hugs                                                                            2. His patient, listening ear
          3. She makes my lunch in the morning                                                    3. He passionate, servant-heart for everyone he is around (family, clients, etc.)

As we move into a new year, one of our goals is being intentional about letting the people we love and care about know that we love and care about them...and that goes for letting each other know too. These daily notes are one simple way to do just that and it was definitely fun to sit and read them together tonight. It gave us something to look forward to at the end of the month, and was a Christmas present that was genuinely from the heart.

As you move into a new year, what are your goals for showing love to the people you care about?