Love Letters

So , we have tons of birthdays this month and everyone has a pretty tight budget. So what do you do when you want to do something for your loved ones? You write them a love letter. Recently my daughter and I had been talking about Elizabeth Barrett Browning and how she wrote love letters and her most famous, "how do I love thee, let me count the ways"
stuck with me. In a world of text messages, emails, blackberry's and face book, we have lost the art of writing letters to each other. In the good old days some of the best gifts were letters from a loved one. Jane Austen would even write stories as gifts.
With pen in hand I started writing a love letter to each of the family members that were having a birthday. I remembered those words how do I love thee and told them some reasons why I love them. I sometimes threw in a favorite memory. After our family dinner I stood and read each letter to the recipient. No TV , no Wii, just a blazing fire and words given as a gift.
One of my favorite moments was when my father in law, who suffers from Alzheimer's, called and said I forgot my letter and I really want it , so please keep it for me. My biggest surprise was that our twin boys who are turning 13 this week, both told me they liked their letter. There was even hugging involved!
It was refreshing to sit down and think about each person and things I love about them and put it to paper and actually share it with them. How often do we not share how we feel with someone? So get some nice paper and a pen and write a friend , a loved one or maybe your spouse a love letter. I highly recommend it.