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Friday, February 13, 2015

Heading into the Valentine's Weekend.


Well, tomorrow is Valentine's Day. I have big plans with my sweetheart. We are going to head over to his parent's house to help them solve a computer problem they are having and then we're going to do our taxes. Ohhhh. Ahhh. Jealous?

So the truth is, we don't celebrate Valentine's Day. In the early years of our relationship we made sincere attempts to celebrate and have a special night that honored our love on the 14th of February because, well, because that is what you are supposed to do. The trouble was, things never worked out. Either I wasn't feel well enough, or hubby was too tired. The restaurants were packed and we always had to wait way too long to get a seat and even longer to get the meal. It was expensive, stressful and never any fun.

We finally started asking ourselves what we were doing. We don't enjoy going out to dinner. Restaurant food is expensive, way too salty and not many places offer good vegetarian options. We aren't the kind of people who can count on feeling up to doing "something special" on a specific day. Neither of us have bought into the idea that what we do on Valentine's Day says anything about our relationship or our love. Ultimately we decided to opt out entirely.

The day after we got married.
I love my husband and I know he loves me. We celebrate us every chance we get by doing the simple things that we love doing. It never involves stuffed animals, expensive jewelry, dinner at a fancy restaurant, chocolate, or greeting cards. We do go ahead and mark some dates that are special to us like the day we got engaged, the day we got married and our birthdays. But we don't necessarily make a big deal about celebrating on those specific dates - opting instead to do what we can when we can.

Simply put, we don't celebrate Valentine's Day because it just doesn't make any sense for us to do so. But I have to admit I also find so much about this holiday to be objectionable. I think greeting cards are generally overpriced anyway, but V-Day cards are twice the price of the everyday overpriced cards. Same goes for chocolate and flowers, the price suddenly sky rockets this time of year. And the pressure, oh my word the pressure to have the perfect romantic night is crazy. It makes single people feel lonely and left out. It makes people who are dating feel like they have to define their relationship based on prescribed gifts and food. Yikes.

Jim Gaffigan proposed we do away with the holiday on CBS Sunday Morning this past weekend. If we were voting on the matter, I would vote yes.





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