My Every-Day-Valentine

I’ve never been a huge fan of Valentine’s Day… Sure, as a kid I loved getting those little “Sweethearts” candy with cute messages on it, but now I see it more as just another over-commercialized holiday. And from a couples’ perspective, I don’t really like how it seems like all the pressure is on the guy to do the wooing, gifting, romancing, etc. Too many women, I think, base their husband’s/boyfriend’s love for them on how well he performs on Valentine’s Day. I mean, c’mon, it’s just one day out of the year! My husband and I see Valentine’s Day more as just an excuse to go out and be with each other than anything else. Now before you write me off as a complete Grinch, please read on…

Now don’t get me wrong – I like flowers, cards, etc. from my husband just as much as any other girl. But why should the expression of love be limited to (or rather focused excessively on) only one day a year? Little things like chocolates and flowers are definitely nice every once in a while, but more than that I appreciate the day in and day out love that PC shows me. He is always kind, encouraging, gentle, and loving toward me. Whether it’s showing appreciation for the measly dinner I made, listening to my hormonal-driven rants and vents, washing the dishes after dinner (we don’t have a dishwasher), or just holding me whenever I just need him (even if it means not getting done as much studying as he would like), he is constantly showing his love for me. This, to me, is true love. And I am blessed beyond words to belong to my Prince Charming.

Now it would be a lie to say that we didn’t “celebrate” Valentine’s Day at all – We usually just keep it simple with dinner and an exchange of cards or something, but this year we decided to go all out and go to a really nice dinner at the Melting Pot (yes, this is about as fancy as it gets for us). With Baby coming soon we knew this would probably be the last time for a while that we would be able to enjoy an extravagant romantic dinner, so we just did it! PC actually had the entire day off of classes – we couldn’t figure out why in the world he would get Valentine’s Day off of all the holidays, but figured it had to do with Loyola being a Jesuit school maybe? At any rate, we’ll take it! So we had a wonderful, relaxing day together and that evening enjoyed a delicious, romantic dinner, and exchanged our cards (actually for Valentine’s and our anniversary he writes me the most romantic letters you can imagine. Yes, he is quite the eloquent Romeo with these letters and leaves me breathless after reading them). So even though I’m not the biggest fan of the holiday itself, I am a huge fan of being with my Every-Day-Valentine and will take any excuse I can get to do so. :-)