Extreme Celebrating

Because we are still students, we are not here in Pasadena to celebrate major holidays together all the time (especially now that Sophie has moved to Texas!). So three years ago we decided that Valentines Day was going to be "our" holiday to go all out to celebrate with one another. It really came out of a pretty bad experience Jenn and I had our first year here. We were involved in a small group of women with some other theology students, who were...well...a little different from us. We were young, excited about life, fresh into seminary, optimistic, and pretty much thrilled with the idea of celebrating Valentines Day with this particular small group (we were all single women so we had decided to go out to dinner together). Jenn and I like holidays. They're fun! Valentines Day had always been a time to celebrate and love your friends, even without men in our lives. So that first Valentines Day at Fuller we show up to go to dinner with these women dressed in pink and red and excited and bubbly about how great it was to celebrate a day where we can love each other. We were met by women all in black, proclaiming how bitter they were to be single, how much men sucked, how Valentines Day was a horrible holiday because it just reminded people who are single that they are in fact still single. Needless to say they did not appreciate our bubbliness. And we did not appreciate their bitterness. Until last year, I had been single for every Valentine's Day in my life, and I for one have always had a great time making friends cards, leaving gifts, and appreciating the reminder that I have an amazing group of people in my life who do love me--single or not. After that first disastrous Valentine's Day here Jenn and I decided we were never again going to let a great holiday be ruined by bitter attitudes. So the following year (our second year here at Fuller) the secret Valentine tradition was born. Sophie, Becca, Jenn and I all drew names of one another, went shopping for each other, and then got all dressed up at some point during Valentine's weekend to go out to a dinner and show and exchange gifts. Last year, we did the same thing and this year, we decided the tradition was too wonderful to give up. So even though Sophie lives in Texas we wanted to find a way to make this happen. A friend of hers in Texas drew names for us and emailed each of us individually to tell us who our valentine was (since we couldn't all be together to draw names). I drew Becca :) We made plans for Sophie to be able to fly out here to LA during some weekend near valentines day and started emailing about how we wanted to celebrate. We wanted to do something different this year, not necessarily something fancy. So we decided to go out to lunch to exchange gifts and then went rock climbing at an indoor rock gym! We were supposed to go hiking but rain got in the way so the rock climbing was a great option. I'd always wanted to try but am terrified of heights, but figured these 3 women are pretty much the people I'd trust with anything, so they were going to be great at helping me conquer my fear. Plus Sophie and Becca have done this a lot so I knew they'd be helpful and supportive. It was awesome. Terrifying, but SO fun and I am so proud of myself for getting to the top of a wall! Here are photos of our valentines day adventure:

Jenn and Sophie enjoying our Chick fil A lunchJenn and I love Chick fil A and Valentine's Day!Sophie's gifts from her secret Valentine (Jenn)Becca with the personalized coffee mug I made for herBecca with the gifts I gave herMy Valentines Day gift wrapped in a Christmas bagSophie had my name & made Chuck and I a journal where we can record our favorite memories and things we are thankful for from our first year of marraige.Becca had Jenn's name for the third year in a row! This year she found these hot pink shoes that Jenn loved!Then it was off to start climbing. Sophie looks like one tough cookie--at least that's what her t-shirt says!Proved to be true too, she was amazing!Me belaying her from belowBecca belaying Jenn Sophie trying to figure out how to climb on the ceilingJenn--AKA spider woman!Jenn and Becca had a problem...no one was hurt, or even in remote danger, but it did end with Becca on the ground...