<$Monday, February 4, 2008$>
10 more shopping days to prove your love...
| I can't say I was all that surprised to see Valentine's Day displays spring up the day after Christmas, seeing as how this is one of the more consumer-driven holidays in our culture; which, as usual, pretty much misses the point. That is, if the point is to celebrate love and the people in your life, and not to try to quantify how much you love someone based on how much you're willing to spend on them. I was never a huge fan of Valentine's Day. I thought this would change after I met my husband, but we're still both pretty "meh" on the whole subject. We acknowledge it, and use it as an excuse to do something romantic, but (with the exception of last year, when I bought him a wedding band to replace the wedding ring that got lost on our honeymoon, and he took me out to an overpriced pub; but it was our first V-day as married people, so we can be excused) we don't go nuts with the spending. Our favorite Valentine's Day so far is the one after we became officially engaged, when I wrote him a love poem and printed it on a homemade, computer generated card, and he gave me a really sweet love letter. Neither cost a cent (unless you tally up the cost of ink and paper), but nevertheless we were both moved to tears by the mutual gesture. That's why this year I plan to try to top that by sitting down and handwriting a love letter to my husband. If you're like me and you think putting time and energy into your Valentine means more than the money you put into it, then these links might be for you:
One thing I'd ad to that last list: make a night of snuggling on the couch and watching her favorite romantic movies. If my husband would do this instead of grumbling about having to watch chick flicks and then finding something else to go do halfway through the movie, I'd be thrilled. It's one night, guys. It won't kill you. And it's a great way to get her in a mood for romance after the movie's over (If you want to surprise her and you don't know what her favorite movie is, a good bet is anything starring Drew Barrymore that does NOT have "Charlie's" or "Angels" in the title). |
