Way back in February, I read on a couple of friends' facebook pages (actually, more than a couple) about how they hate Valentine's Day, and how commercial it is, and how overrated it is, and how it's a manufactured holiday ... and I totally get that opinion, and I don't think you should set aside just one day to tell someone that they are special to you and let them know you love them (you should be doing that every day, you know?), but I will say that Valentine's Day holds a special place in mine and Alan's lives since he proposed to me on Valentine's Day 6 years ago. So, you know, to us it's not commercial or overrated or manufactured. Alan told me once that he proposed on Valentine's Day so that the day
would actually have some meaning, and not just be about Hallmark and the florist. I also see lots of opinions on facebook and wherever about how "flowers are a waste of money - they die", etc, etc, and, again, while I can understand how people feel that way (and, of course, everybody is always entitled to his or her own opinion), I will admit that I do love getting flowers. Alan is very good about flowers. When Alan and I first started dating, he brought me flowers all of the time - that's not to say he spent a fortune having the florist deliver me flowers, but he would buy me a rose from the grocery store, or pick some daffodils at the park (back when we exercised and went running at the park in Fayetteville), or something like that. And now that we're married, he never fails to send me flowers on our wedding anniversary (usually white roses, since those were a prominent flower at our wedding), and on Valentine's Day and my birthday (usually some mixed bouquet of yellow flowers, yellow being my favorite color), and then he'll usually do it a few more times throughout the year, whenever he thinks I need a pick-me-up. I love flowers, and I love getting them, like I said. Makes me feel special, and I love fresh flowers in general - I buy them at Kroger a lot and put them out in bowls around our house - it really adds a fresh feeling to our house, and makes me feel all HGTV-y and Pottery Barn-esque. Flowers make me smile, and I love the smell of a fresh bouquet. So, you know, it's not about me feeling like I must get flowers on Valentine's Day just because it's Valentine's Day, or the great debate over the money or the commercialism or the fact that flowers die eventually - it's about making someone that is special to you feel special. And if flowers do that, then by all means, send flowers. If cards or chocolate or a book or some iTunes or a dinner out or a dinner cooked at home do that, then do it: do it every day, every chance you get. Always take every opportunity to make someone special to you feel special, by whatever method and means you have available.
Here are this year's Valentine's Day flowers that make me feel special:
Here are my sweet Valentines that make Valentine's Day and every day special for me.
On a similar note, I will say that I think New Year's Eve is a
completely overrated holiday - the last time I really remember going out on New Year's Eve and, like, partying it up, I think it was one of the times that the Razorbacks went to the Cotton Bowl and we went to Dallas for that ... back when I was in undergrad ... so we're talking about, you know, 8 - 10 years? We usually just go out to dinner with friends, like at a friends' house, and we rarely actually make it to midnight. The one tradition we do keep with is making ham and black-eyed peas on New Year's Day, but that's only because we like ham and black-eyed peas, and a little good fortune/good luck can't hurt. Alan and I don't really do resolutions, but we do talk about goals we would like to accomplish in the coming year. This year, two things that we really wanted to do were to get up early and have a leisurely breakfast, coffee, read the paper, all of that ... and I will say that so far we are not doing so hot with that one :o). Alan is doing a lot better than me, but I am just not a morning person, and I'm incredibly slow, and I also am a deep sleeper - the alarm will wake me up momentarily, but I can fall back asleep, and hard asleep, in moments, so that doesn't really work for me. We won't give up, though ... it's only the first quarter, after all. Our other goal was to eat dinner at the kitchen table and have conversations about our days (or whatever - we just wanted to stop eating dinner at the coffee table in front of the TV like we were still in college - back when we first moved to Russellville, we delayed getting cable for like 4 months (I forget why), and during that 4 months, we came home from work and ate a meal at the kitchen table and talked about what we had done that day or about interesting things we had heard about or whatever, and it was just really enjoyable). This is going a lot better, and my next step to accomplish is to set the table and kind of make it "fancy" every day - by "fancy", I mean have placemats out, and little place settings with our everyday china (we have a ton of everyday china - like three different complete sets - I could host a dinner party for 36 people with all of our everyday china, if I were ever so inclined), maybe a centerpiece (like the aforementioned fresh flowers) so we'll feel like we're right out of a Crate & Barrel commercial :o). Can you tell I like home improvement/home furnishing stores?
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