5 Fun Ways to Tell Your Family "I Love You" on Valentine's Day

Little gestures of love on Valentine's Day for the whole family

Since having kids, Valentine's Day has changed from trendy restaurants with candlelight dinners to making heart-shaped pancakes for the kids. That's OK with my husband and I because after all, our kids are the biggest expression of our love. So, instead of celebrating Valentine's Day with just one night of romance,we find that Valentine's Day is the perfect day for small surprises that say "I Love You!" There are an endless number of small ways to show your family love this Valentine's Day but here are a few fun and creative ideas to inspire you and make this Valentine's Day extra special. 1. A Sweet Treat. Make your family one of their favorite sweets. Maybe a favorite cookie to take in their lunch box or that Dad can take to work. Last …

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Spending On Valentine's Day Gifts Goes Up. What Will You Be Buying?

The average person will fork out $130.97 on Valentine's Day gifts, according to a national survey. That's up slightly from last year. How much do you plan to spend on your Valentine?

Love — and money — are in the air this time of year. Americans are expected to spend $18.6 billion on Valentine's Day gifts this year, according to the National Retail Federation, citing a survey by BIGinsight. That comes out to $130.97 per person, which is up from $126.03 last year.  Perhaps not surprisingly, men will outspend women, with an average of $175.61 each compared to $88.78, according to the survey. While most of that spending is going toward significant others, 20 percent of people plan to buy a Valentine's Day gift for their pet. Yet there's hope for those who place a premium on quality time together instead of gifts. According to a study by Discover Financial Services, a majority of couples prefer to spend time together than …

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No Babysitter for Valentine's Day? No Problem!

Simple ways to put the kids to work and still have a Romantic evening at home

No babysitter for Valentine’s Day this year? Don't worry about it! You can still have a fun and romantic evening at home, even with the kids. When our kids were young, we could never get a babysitter for Valentine’s Day. But we recovered by putting the kids to work. That’s right. Putting the kids to work. I asked my kids if they could help put together a romantic evening for Daddy and I. Even though they were 7 and 9 years old, they took it on as a challenge and were quite creative. Here's how it worked. 1. Decide whether you are going to cook a romantic meal or order in from one of your favorite restaurants. We enjoy cooking but if you don’t, treat yourself and get carry out. Fancy food, not a big mess to clean-up, and a much less …

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John Ness

10:57 am on Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Awesome.   more ›

Photo Gallery: Valentine's Day is Such a "Drag"

Wilmette Theatre hosted a couple-geared drag show Monday evening to celebrate the holiday of hearts.

This Valentine's Day the Wilmette Theatre was a little more bold in bearing its heart. with a "Love is a Many Gendered Thing!" drag show. “We get a bad rap up here in the suburbs so we wanted to shake things up a little bit.” Wilmette Theatre's marketing director Nili Yelin previously told Patch, "I’m really passionate about diverse entertainment and exposing people to things that they wouldn’t go out of their way to see." Yelin has been one of the main forces behind bringing alternative entertainment, like the drag show, to the theatre. Monday evening's performers included drag queens Vikki Spykke*, Angelique Munro*, Viviana Mendez* and emcee Cameron Esposito. *All drag queens are listed by their performance names.

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Wilmette Meets Love Part 3: "To This Day He Sends Me A Valentine Every Year"

It's Valentine's Day and Patch wants to share some local love stories with you.

Since junior high, the stage has led to love for Wilmette Theatre's Marketing Director Nili Yelin. After falling for the not-quite-right guys, Yelin's story shows that sometimes nice guys finish first. Check out parts one and two of our Wilmette Meets Love series. Stay tuned to Patch for our final installment.

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An Extra Shot With James

We Found Cupid

Frozen solid under a 3-foot snow bank.

Greetings Patchers, Now that we’re all shoveled out we can ban together as a community and share in the experience of freezing to death. You know, while walking down Linden Street with the razor sharp subzero wind cutting through my clothes and chilling my very soul, I couldn’t help but be reminded that Monday is Valentine’s Day. [That’s my seg-way. Deal with it.] Valentine’s Day—the holiest of the Hallmark holidays. Perhaps it is my argumentative nature, but when these holidays appear on the horizon I find myself asking the question, why? Maybe I already answered that by labeling the day as a Hallmark holiday. Still, I wonder why we continue to celebrate this day, which seems to bring a sense of obligation and dread. That’s the cliché …

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