Home full of love

So, I was cleaning my house the other day, or doing some domestic project at home, and I started thinking about how our home "feels" when people walk into it. This is a very soft thing, and I struggle to articulate it. We have a lovely home, full of very nice furniture and really everything we could ever want. But when people walk into it, does it feel welcoming and full of love, or does it just feel like a nicely staged house? Does that make sense to anyone? As E grows up, I want our home to be a place he feels welcome and wants to be in and bring his friends to. That is really important to me. It needs to be full of love (and I'm sure a really big gaming system won't hurt). So when I try to think about what is missing, I quite can't put my finger on anything, except food. In spite of Mike's best efforts to convince me that food does not equal love, I still associate the two. All special occasions growing up didn't just involve food, but pretty much revolved around it. Hamburgers at the lake on the 4th of July, Turkey at Thanksgiving, Grandma's kitchen at Easter, random smorgasbord of creativity for Christmas, and waffles with ice cream on your birthday. So I haven't come up with any conclusions on either question (i.e., does our home feel full of love and how do we make it that way), but my parents came to visit me 2 weekends ago with my brother and his fiance. Activities ranged from mushroom hunting (we were skunked) to rock climbing to shopping at the Mall of America. We had a great time, and I do know that for that weekend our home was full of love. Maybe it was the box of home canned goodies they brought with them? I think this will be as unrewarding to read as it was to write based on its lack of conclusion, and I would love to hear how others fill their homes with love.

Thanks to my family for visiting and filling my home with love! Here are some pictures from our weekend.

 The adorable engaged couple!

 Sharing samples at the farmer's market

 Discovering new things

 Sharing birthdays (and chocolate lava cake)

 Some Grandma and Grandpa love.

My dear husband (and our first date in a very long time thanks to Grandma and Grandpa babysitting), who is such an excellent host and fills my heart with love every day.