Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Valentines Day

This might sound weird, but I really hate Valentine's Day. Not the part where kids give their classmates silly cartoon valentines and yucky conversation hearts but the part where boyfriends/husbands are supposed to give their girlfriends/wives chocolates, roses, and a "romantic" evening.

Early in our marriage, I forbade Brad from ever buying me roses on Valentine's Day. Being a total cheapskate, I cringe at paying exorbitant prices for Valentine's Day roses. Especially if you wait a week, they are a fraction of the cost. I think it is silly that people scramble to make reservations at nice restaurants and buy tacky presents that say I Love You.

Maybe these feelings come from being boyfriend-less during those horrible high school years. But whatever the reason, I love it when I get flowers for no reason, a special night out just because, and a card just to be thoughtful.

This year Brad gave me some pink tulips in a pot (purchased from Home Depot) two days early. I think we might have wished each other Happy Valentine's Day over the phone. It was perfect!

7 comments:

Emma said...

Aaron and I agreed to the same thing. He doesn't get me flowers on V-day and I don't expect them. I'd rather have them reasonably priced at some random time. We tried going out to eat on v-day once and it was a disaster. We never tried it again. This year he has the day off so we tried lunch, and that actually worked out well. Our gifts to each other are usually very small - a candy bar or ice cream etc. We can be romantic any time, I don't need a specific day for it.

Anonymous said...

I totally love Valentine's Day! I have fond memories of my mom giving us a special treat with our dinner, and my grandma would come over and give us something too. Now I do the same thing, we all get a special treat that night. This year, I went totally overboard and made chocolate covered strawberries, a strawberry cake, plus bought these super cute treats from the YW fundraiser - but it was all so fun!

Jenni said...

Tara,
Maybe next year I'll try and do something fun for the family and make it more exciting for everyone. I did read a great suggestion from I think meckmom.com about giving each family member a mailbox and have everyone send notes to each other all week long.

Thanks for the fun thoughts!

Audra said...

It must run in the family or something because I said those exact words to Eric and we agreed that from here on out, we would not celebrate Valentines Day (other than for the kids) I think for married couples who are thoughtful and selfless throughout the year, Valentines day is annoying. I guess for those couples who don't ever show appreciation or love to their spouses-once a year they can get their act together and do something nice. I'll have to have Eric read your post. He thought I was being....shall we say, unusual? in my request to just forget it!!

Angela said...

I thought I knew everything about you! I have to agree with the price of flowers. It's hard to enjoy them if they're too pricey! I gave Doug and the kids a little something for v-day, it was fun to cherish all my sweethearts! I like the idea of the notes all week... maybe we'll do that next week as another thing to help us in accomplishing our more love at home goal.

Vicki said...

We know it was sappy to do, but James and I got engaged on Valentine's Day back almost five years ago, and we use the holiday to celebrate the anniversary of our engagement. We don't do anything fancy - no flowers. We order take out from a Chinese restaurant we love (and ate at the night of our engagement) and watch a movie. It's something we look forward to - less stress than an anniversary and more about being sweethearts than spouses :)

Jenni said...

Vicki,
How did I not remember that you got engaged on Valentine's Day??!!

How fun that you have an easy way to remember the day you became engaged. I like that you celebrate your sweetheart status! I think if such a wonderful thing happened to me on V-Day, it would be less annoying to me.