Valentine's Day Treats

Most of you know that I am not a fan of Valentine's Day. Ask any florist or former florist and they will tell you that Valentine's Day is over-rated. After working at a flower shop for 8 years, and working those long busy Valentine's Days that absolutely wore me out, the last thing I wanted to see was flowers, balloons, and candy. When Erik and I married, I made him promise to never buy me something for V-day. I told him that I wanted nothing to do with it, and that everyday should be V-day...not just one day out of the year. So, we haven't celebrated it...AT ALL!

This year, I have a different feeling. I don't want a thing from my husband, but do want to start acknowledging the holiday for our Mills' sake. I think that he should be fully aware of every holiday on the calender and maybe V-day will be a fun thing for him. I do want to stress the fact that he should love his significant other and show her that he loves her each and every day, not just one day out of the year. So, I told Erik that we should start setting an example for him.

To start, Mills will be having his first Valentine's Day party at Mimi June's. I wanted to make some extra special treats for the boys and girls. When my best friend Stephanie, delivered her baby boy, Nash, she made some of the cutest, quickest, and easiest favors to give to his first visitors. They were white chocolate dipped pretzel rods sprinkled with light blue crystallized sprinkles. I had forgotten about them until I was strolling the aisles at Walmart and saw the bags that she had put them in. Immediately, I returned all of my cookie supplies to its rightful place and replaced it with all of the necessary ingredients to make the pretzel rods. This was MUCH quicker and easier than baking a trillion cookies and decorating them. I am pleased with how they turned out. Thanks Steph, for your idea. :)

After dipping the pretzels in almond bark and sprinkling with Valentine's sprinkles, I place them on aluminum foil to dry.

I then added small red hearts to the more simple ones...just to add a little love ;)

Using this ribbon...

and these bags...

I ended up with this...
Not your every day, average Valetine's cookie!