Valentine's Day

Interesting that I pulled this heart-shaped potato out of the bag two days before Valentine's Day. The kids thought it was very cool!

So it's Valentine's Day, possibly the "holiday" that many people have the strongest feelings about. I was picking up a card for hubby yesterday and another woman was there doing the same thing. "I hate this holiday," she said to me. I was a bit taken aback and automatically chuckled and said, "Oh, really?" "I love him every day of the year," she said. "Why should I have to buy him something to show that?"

At that point I just smiled and walked away, having found a card I liked. Now I'm wishing I had said, "I just take it as an excuse to have some fun," which is true. I buy a little candy treat and some socks for the kids (in fact when I presented them with these goodies this morning, Mark laughed and said "We always gets socks for Valentine's" and Emily said, "Yeah, it's like a tradition"), and a treat and a card for Terry. We use the day as a reason to get out without the kids to a movie or something, which is something that couples with children often fail to do as much as they should (I know we're guilty of that). So instead of griping about it, I think the better attitude is to see what fun you can get out of it.

I have to say, though, that I am fully against what the stores and marketers are trying to do (which they do with everything)--turn it into a major gift-giving occasion. It will never be that in this house. It's just a reminder to show and tell the people we love that we love them. Most of us in our busy lives can use those kinds of reminders once in a while.