This truly seems to be a love/hate day. Not many people are neutral about it. So, is it a day you celebrate or not? If so, how?
My husband and I have ignored it pretty much forever. I think I may have sent him a card once when he was working out of town over a February, and it was more of a joke than anything. One year, I made heart-shaped cakes for us to take into work, and decorated them with “Happy V-D!!”
Other than that, the only acknowledgement was when I would take our daughter to buy cards to give out in class. Mostly, we just make a note not to go out to dinner. This approach suits us well.
Nothing more romantic than perhaps a favorite old movie, but I’m going to make a fancy tea this afternoon with open-faced cucumber, shrimp, & seafood salad sandwiches. Ordinarily, I’d use a round cookie-cutter to cut the bread; just for today, I’ll use the big heart-shaped cutter.
So I have gone shopping in advance of the blizzard tonight.
Filled car up with gas.
Flirted with cute plow driver filling his truck up with gas. (He flirted back!)
Came home.
Took out garbage.
Now I’m going to have lunch and a nap with the cats.
I’ll probably make soup for dinner tonight.
Exciting!
(Even when I’m in a relationship, I don’t do much. Restaurants are crowded, the flowers are overpriced, and my taste in jewelry doesn’t run to anything advertised on TV, ever. I’d rather exchange cards, make a nice dinner at home, and drink wine in front of the fireplace.)
We observe, but don’t make a huge deal of it generally. Tonight we will grill a couple of ribeyes and I will make a cake. Small gifts sometimes, but we generally don’t bother with cards. Last year we went out to a local Moroccan joint, and I was looking forward to trying some of the yummy things on the menu, but we were forced into a special Valentine’s Day prix fixe menu, which I detest (especially because nobody mentioned it when I made the reservation).
A local Italian restaurant does a special VD dinner. Dimmed lights, romantic Muzak, two smaller seatings. When you reserve your table you also can order flowers for the table that you pay for and take home. I ordered roses this year. They have a special menu and wine list.
I made our reservations a month ago. This will be our fifth consecutive year, and as long as they keep offering we’ll keep coming back.
My husband gave me a package of peanut M&Ms and I gave him a can of nuts. We are going to Chipotle for lunch, but we do that most Saturday’s. I don’t expect it will be full of people celebrating Valentine’s Day.
Then we are home for the evening. Other than the gifts, which we probably would have bought ourselves at the store this afternoon anyway, it’s just a day.
We have celebrated our anniversary at Subway, though, so you can tell we just don’t get worked up over stuff.
When my husband was alive, we’d go out for a nice dinner. Nothing really unusual about that, except that we made a pact not to mention either work or kids during our meal. We could talk about books we’d read, movies we wanted to see, politics, religions, anything but work and kids.
More recently, when I had a long-term relationship, we’d go skiing on the Saturday closest to the 14th. (We live in the mountains so it was just a day trip) Not terribly romantic, but something we both enjoyed and looked forward to. We did exchange cards, too.
As always, I made little gift bags for my kids with a card and some chocolates. My honey got me flowers and a card and I got him a card and chocolates. We’re trying a new restaurant that sounds fun tonight. It’s a good excuse to be a little extra sweet to each other.
Still undecided whether I am going to brave my sniffles and the blowing snow (not much but the wind is biting and I’m being whiney) for one of my traditional celebrations. I’ve overwhelmingly been single on V-day so finding a restaurant with a bar area that can view the dining room makes for great people watching. It’s a day where the social and relationship pressure produce some unique people watching. V-day can also be a fun bar night. Not planning on that though.
I promise I don’t gawk at traffic accidents. V-day date watching is less bloody and more humorous…even if it’s almost as dark.
Chocolates and cards at breakfast. Flowers in the afternoon. We’ll go out for seafood in a week or so, (we both worked service for years, no how are we going to a restaurant!), and we’ll order in tonight. (a treat for us!).
There is currently a viscous winter storm raging. With -38 C (-36 F) temps, white outs, squalls, screaming winds, and wildly drifting snow. The kind of weather where Warnings are issued to just stay in. So we’re settled in with our dog, a raging fire in our wood stove on a most dark stormy night. The wind is loudly howling and swirling, but life seems lovely in our humble home. Snug as bugs we are!
I saw some doves in the back yard celebrating Valentine’s day, so I went to the zoo to see if the other animals were “celebrating.” There seemed to be a bit of romantic interest between the Andean Condors and wood ducks and there were a few “babies” from last year, but most of animals were just taking in the sun.
Well, I fibbed - we did eat out, tho pretty early. We were running to Lowe’s, so we stopped at Red Robin for an early supper. It really doesn’t count as a romantic meal, tho. We were discussing rivets and building structures out of aluminum. Really!
It, like the other waste of money Halloween, didn’t exist in Australia when I was young so I never got into it. Once it reared its ugly head here I was married to a woman whose birthday is February 14, so no need to celebrate it as Valentine’s Day.
We tend to make about the kids. Dangerdad writes them valentines and there are treats. But we don’t do anything as a couple. Our first date anniversary is Feb. 28, so we make that a special thing.
I send valentines to my friends’ kids and my nieces. This year I also had doggie valentines - cards made out of rawhide - that I got on sale so I sent those out.
We have a local chocolate company, Malley’s, that does chocolate covered strawberries, grapes and bananas for Valentine’s Day. One of their shops opened near me and I always mean to get some grapes for myself but I always forget. This year I remembered!
So I’ve been avoiding the foot of snow outside and the below-zero temps, and hanging out inside in my Jammie’s with the dogs, watching tv and eating pizza and chocolate covered grapes.
When we were young and broke Suburban Plankton and I would go over to the drugstore and read each other Valentine’s Day cards. It was silly and fun, and didn’t cost anything. Other than that, we’ve never been much for celebrating Valentine’s Day.
