Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day could very well be my favorite holiday after Christmas--especially when you get to celebrate at school.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:7-8

Here's how I was loved this year for Valentine's Day:

At Springfield, every single kid and teacher gave me a Valentine and/or candy. It was so sweet! I was so blessed by it and all of the precious little notes were adorable. By the time I left on Thursday, I had my arms full with these 3 bags full of cards and even a red heart balloon! I think my name was spelled every way possible on these too: Clarissa, Carisa, Carrissa, etc.

One note that made me laugh said: "Dear Miss Carisa you are the best Monday Tuesday Thursday reces teacher. My favorite game is freez tag because I love to run. When I grow up I want to be a cook or a really really good runnur. I don't know why I whant to be a runnur." They forgot to sign it so I'm not sure exactly who its from but I think a 2nd or 3rd grader wrote it. Made me smile. :-)

Also this week, I received a package in the mail from the wonderful Ali Tong, addressed to me and Autumn.

So one night after class we got together to open our special Valentine's package. Isn't she so sweet to still think of us on Valentine's day even though she is married and living far away?

There was a cute little note inside...

...telling us we had to be together to open it. Thank goodness we were, so we could continue opening it up!

I found my give-away hat inside, as well as these cozy little scarflettes that Ali whipped up for us. Of course mine is pink! They have really cute buttons too.

She had everything labeled for us and really went overboard on spoiling us. She even got us chocolates for our respective teams--Autumn being a part of Team Jacob, and me, naturally a Team Edward fan. Ali totally got it right even though I don't think we've ever talked about it. hehe.

yummy candy!
and GNOMES!! These are key-gnomes. They go on our keys so they can travel everywhere with us. After traveling around Europe with our little gnomes, I can attest to the fact that you should never travel without one!

Ali, thank you for putting such a special package together for us! It made my week! I love you!