We love hearing your life stories and want to hear more! This time we are looking for your Valentine story. Please try to keep your story to no more than 500 words. Upload your story in the comments section or email them to donna@recollections.biz. The contest runs through Tuesday, February 14 at midnight. Then, we’ll pick our three favorites. Each winner will receive a $40 gift certificate as a way of saying thanks for sharing your memories with us! Winners will be notified by email.

Here’s one to get you started.

Valentine’s Day with kids can be an adventure. My husband and I stopped going out to dinner on the holiday because the restaurants were so crowded. It was no fun trying to have an intimate dinner when you are elbow-to-elbow with the surrounding diners! So, early on we decided to make it a family holiday. It was not only less expensive and required no babysitters, the kids could get in on the holiday with their parents.

One year, they decided to make dinner and dessert for us. We did our best to stay out of their way, trusting that everything would be all right. We heard a lot of noise coming from the kitchen as the girls started on the project. Naturally, the older one was in charge. It’s a good thing they can work well together because suddenly we heard an ‘uh-oh’ and a ‘how do we fix this?’ We asked if everything was o.k. and were assured that all was fine in the kitchen and we weren’t to worry.

My husband and I retreated to the yard for a while, hoping for the best but preparing for takeout. Sure enough, after a while, the girls came to us and told us that they made a huge mistake in the recipe and didn’t know how to fix it. We went to take a look at what happened. The chicken looked good and smelled good but tasted awful! We tried not to look too aghast but it was really bad. All of the herbs and spices from the kitchen were on the counter. They admitted to trying a little bit of this and a little bit of that to try to make it better once they realized their mistake.

We all laughed and wondered if going to culinary school was in either of their futures. It’s a good thing we all like pizza!

– Donna Klein