Celebrating Love/Ideal Gifts

Tony and I don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day.  Well, there was one year that we did, when Tony was still in school and I was off of work for some reason in the middle of the day (maybe I started work at 3 that afternoon – I was working the front desk at a hotel in Blaine), so we had a lovely Valentine’s Day lunch and Tony brought me flowers and wine (wine with lunch!  Scandalous!) and these pretty painted wine glasses, one of which we still have (the other broke, which is not a symbol of our broken love, but rather an example of either clumsiness or why one shouldn’t throw a football in the house – I can’t remember which).  And, I guess, the year before we “celebrated” when we did a naked, tandem bungee jump in Nanaimo (that bungee operation has since been sold to a larger company of bungee parks and no longer does the charity Valentine’s nude jump party – probably because it was too cold) and Tony gave me a beautiful heart-shaped diamond pendant that I still wear sometimes when I’m sure small, peanut-butter covered fingers aren’t going to be grabbing it.

 

Since then, though, we don’t really do Valentine’s Day.  We don’t go out.  We don’t exchange gifts.  We don’t do special meals.  Tony is a CPA and this is his busiest time of year – it’s not fair to expect him to make some grand gesture of love to me when he is tired, stressed, and working 14 hours a day, even on Saturdays.  I bought some unreasonably cute Valentine’s cards to send to family (I’ll post them here on the 14th) and I plan to make cookies for Charles’s and Jamie’s party at preschool. 

 

It’s less stressful this way, and I am starting to understand that Tony doesn’t get the whole gift-giving thing, anyhow.  It’s just so much easier to let this holiday go.  Same with our anniversary.  OF COURSE we celebrate our anniversary, but I don’t want or expect big, showy presents.  I don’t need Tony to re-declare his love to me with expensive jewelry or something.  Instead, if we can continue the tradition started last fall with dinner and a movie out, I will be a happy camper.

 

I read this post on Milk & Cookies and I was thinking, hmm, what DO I want for Valentine’s Day?  Or rather, what do I want on significant, gift-giving holidays like my birthday or Christmas or Mothers’ Day (that one totally counts as a gift-giving holiday, too)?

 

Well, this is where it would be useful if Tony knew how to work Pinterest, though I can’t see him ever setting up an account, because things I like/want are right there.  As all women know, I don’t want what I need, I want what I want.

 

I like flowers, especially because they feel so girly, and my life has become dominated by boy stuff over the past few years.  The bouquets at Costco are the best; full, multi-colored, and not full of lilies.  Barring that, I love peonies, daisies, and daffodils.  What I really need for flowers is a larger variety of vases, but I don’t have room for them.  And I would be afraid of them getting hit by a football (there is a no-throwing-balls-in-the-house rule, but it is frequently forgotten).

 

Every woman loves jewelry, but I really don’t want expensive stuff.  Although a strand of pearls would be nice, funky, bold-colored, costume jewelry is where it’s at.  Like this:

 

modeets.com

 

I would like to have lots more cheap jewelry, and then a good way to organize it.  Like a jewelry box.  I’m thinking of buying myself one as soon as I can justify spending $100 plus shipping on myself, and this is the one I’m considering:

 

From Amazon.com – it’s wall-mount, so hopefully little fingers won’t be able to paw through my stuff until they’re old enough not to want to.

 

And chocolates.  I was in the bad, bad habit of buying myself a box of See’s chocolates when I was nursing Jamie and craved chocolate ALL THE TIME.  I always got a half pound of Milk Chocolate Buttercream and a half pound of Milk Chocolate Bordeaux.  I think you can understand, based on recent posts about eating well and losing weight, that I don’t do this anymore, but gift chocolate doesn’t count.

 

And I love silly home-decor stuff.  I would love to have decorations for every holiday imaginable, but right now I have Christmas and Halloween covered, and that’s it.  And my Halloween decorations need beefing up.  But also, I love funky home decor that serves a purpose, like these awesome wall hooks:

 

 

anthropologie.com

 

And, obviously, a sappy love note will always do.

 

So what about you?  What do YOU want for Valentine’s Day?  Also, what do you do for Valentine’s Day?  I think there’s this vague notion that all the cool people go out to a fancy, romantic dinner on February 14th, but I don’t know anyone who actually does.  I’m going to my exercise class with the kids and then coming home to make dinner.  The next morning, I’m packing the kids and dog up to leave Tony in peace for the long weekend.  So I guess that is a Valentine’s gift of sorts: here, honey, have a whole weekend to yourself!… so you can go to the office and work like a fiend.  Okay, maybe that’s not so great a gift after all.  This time of year sucks.