FOR PARENTS (2 of 3)

For more than thirty years, the Valentine Aardvark continued to visit the Mitchell family. On December 9, 2006, my wild-animal-and-outdoors-loving, zoologist father suddenly and unexpectedly died. In February 2007, my family celebrated our first Valentine’s Day without him. I have a new-found appreciation for the memories and love that traditions inspire.

Getting the Valentine Aardvark to visit your home is simple. On Valentine’s Eve, you make a Valentine Aardvark pouch. In our family, the pouch evolved from decorating brown paper lunch sacks with pink and red crayons (which actually creates a lovely earthy stain color), to stapling and taping two pieces of construction paper together and making a “pouch” that is then decorated. Putting names on the pouches makes the Aardvark’s job easier. Of course, there is no limit on how to create the pouches, but our family tries to regulate the size (small) to lighten the load of treats that the Aardvark has to buy and deliver.