As you may know, Valentine’s Day is on the 14th. So since I’m a, you know, man, I should get my wife a present for Valentine’s day.
However, since she’s working part-time the last few weeks at a florist shop due to the Valentine’s Day rush, she isn’t going to want flowers.
And since we’re both trying to lose a couple of pounds, a bunch of chocolate would be counterproductive.
And since our house is overflowing with junk, I mean precious mementos, a tchotchke that just takes up shelf space isn’t a good idea either.
So with the easy options out of the way, what are some other good ideas? Bath/Beauty/Spa type stuff is where I’m thinking, but maybe you all have some better notions.
If she likes Beauty/Bath/Spa stuff, then that’s a great idea.
Another idea that’s gone over very well for me in the past is to get some little cards that come with envelopes, I think I found them at a craft shop like Micheal’s, and fill up a few of them for future activities. The activities should be stuff that’s at least semi-romantic, and you can do together. Then put them in a nice box or container (also found at a craft shop) with a bow on top. The idea is that your significant other gets to open one at a time, say once a week on a Friday, and you do the activity over the weekend.
For example, the cards could have things like:
Take a walk together at our favorite park/area of town/whereever, then stop and have lunch at our favorite restaurant.
Jump in bed and see how many kisses it takes to get from each other’s toes to the tips of their fingers.
Go do something you guys talk about doing but never do. Like… visit that new museum, or go to that sporting even that you both enjoy watching but never seem to find time to do. That kind of thing.
Drop the kids off with a babysitter and take Saturday afternoon to drive to a nearby town and check it out.
grab a bottle of wine and spend the night at the local paint-your-own-pottery shop and each of you paint a mug/plate/whatever for the other one.
Go to the library, cruise the poetry section, each pick out a book of poetry. Go home, each find a romantic poem, and read it to each other.
You get the idea. Most of my best ideas were things that we kept talking about doing but never did. Ideally it’s stuff that you will both enjoy, things that you keep putting off or feel like you don’t do enough of or just for whatever reason stopped doing. Somehow, writing it down in a card and making it special makes it really happen.
A massage, movie or theater tickets, a really nice bottle of wine, offering to do a chore she detests for a whole month, small diamond earrings, perfume that she likes but wouldn’t normally spend money on.
Well, I’m getting my sweetheart a kindle. But I think that’s because that’s what he really wants and I’ve been thinking about getting for him for a while now and Vday is a convenient excuse to splurge.
Is there any little treat you know she’d like that she hasn’t been able to justify buying for herself? Because that would be your answer right there --I know I’d be thrilled just that mine noticed I’d been wanting something, let alone actually following through with buying it for me.
Also, chocolates aren’t necessarily out of the question. We used to get a nice box of Godiva chocolates and every time we made love, we’d have one each (sharing bites of course, loveydoveydoodle…retch ;)) during the postcoital snugglefest. The box wouldn’t last long, but we’d have earned the calories together so it was a big win-win.
Peeps don’t count as food and they’re interactive and educational when you put them in the microwave.
Hm, I would think of something she likes to do but you don’t, so she doesn’t get to do it as much as she’d like, or she feels guilty and does it quickly. Like browsing through garage sales or antique shops, or craft stores. Then do it together with humorous enthusiasm.
If she likes crossword puzzles or sudoku or something, getting a book of that is a little thing but could be tucked in with the main gift for extra thoughtfulness.
Mr. Sali doesn’t “get” Valentines Day. He thinks something is required of him to ‘show the love’. So he runs out Valentines Day morning and comes home with candy and a $100 flower arrangement :eek: which has to be put out of reach of the cat. Who thinks it’s for him, to eat. (I never demanded candy/flowers, ever, a card will do fine.) But he really has no imagination. And we’ve been married a loooong time. I told him finally a couple years ago to please, just ‘chill’. Stop sweating it. I’m not your girlfriend or fiancee. We don’t have to celebrate a stupid holiday. We don’t have to buy a bunch of useless stuff. Stop. Just stop.
So yesterday we drove in a blizzard to our favorite restaurant, even though he wasn’t feeling very well, and I ordered pasta, and he ordered a pizza to go and an enormous lobster pasta casserole. Which he ordered specifically for me. I put some in freezer containers for the future and we are having pizza today. Which is rather practical, and thoughtful of him for ordering lobster pasta just for me!
Is there a band she realy likes coming to town? Airplane tickets to a vacation spot? (ok, I’m being pretty free with your VISA card. Sorry.)
How about making a photoshopped coupon for a date where you do everything the way she wants it done? Cut paste it over & over into 2 columns in Excel, fit it all to 8 1/2 x 11 size, print them, cut them into single coupons, sign them, staple them together and present them to her in the form of a coupon book? Of course it only works if its a coupon she’d use & not toss up on the top shelf.
We go out to a nice dinner. Since tomorrow is our 20th anniversary, mrAru is taking the day off, we are going to go to a matinee of something, probably a comedy and follow with dinner at Ruth’s Chris which is a bit of a splurge, but it beats <quick check for the 'official 20th anniversary gift type> more china that I don’t need.
There is not that much sugar in one, and the peaches were beautiful (fresh frozen from our orchard last year). I managed to not burn it or mess up the oven, so it looks like I have a winner here.
(significance of peach? na peach tree factors into a special childhood moment)
(yes, I expect to get laid for this)
No, seriously! The Bronx Zoo has a deal where you can have the honor of naming one of their Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches for a $10 donation. The money goes towards supporting the zoo and their wildlife conservation programs.
It could work well for you, because it doesn’t involve food or mementos.
If she’s working in a floral shop, she’ll probably come home feeling like she’s been beaten with a stick, so I’d go the immediate pampering route. A nice home-cooked dinner that fits with the new food regime, foot rub, bubble bath, that sort of thing. I’m having a rough weekend for similar reasons (I’ve made 17 dozen truffles in the past few days and have about 5 dozen left to go, plus a bunch of dinners to make tomorrow), and that’s pretty much what DoctorJ is doing for me.