Valentine's Day
I’m a hopeless romantic. Valentine’s Day is this week. I like Valentine’s Day. That puts my husband in a difficult position.
last Feb. 14's breakfast for my husband |
But, he planned January’s date,
and he’s already planned March’s date.
So, he asked me to plan February’s date.
I said, “Yes; I’d love to plan our Valentine’s date.”
He replied, “I can’t do that; I
can’t let my wife plan the Valentine’s date.
What kind of husband would I be?”
I won:)
I planned the Valentine’s date,
and I enjoyed planning the Valentine’s date.
Since I’m the one who likes Valentine’s so much, it makes sense for me
to plan it. A couple years ago a woman
told me that women had too many holidays; that we should make Valentine’s for
the men. First, can women or men or anybody
have too many holidays? Can we ever have
too many “excuses” to lavish love, appreciation, and kindness on the important
people in our lives? Second, I don’t
think Valentine’s is a holiday for
women. I don’t think it needs to be for men either. It’s for everyone. Everyone loves.
Our Valentine’s date was Friday
night. We dropped off the kids with Aunt
Mandy, Big Tristan, and Buster. We went
to the Boathouse for drinks and the sunset.
I intentionally used this time for us to catch up and to clear the air
on an issue or two so that we could each be fully present for an enjoyable
evening. I didn’t want unspoken frustrations
to linger over our date night; those nights are too rare and precious to waste.
Then, I took him to a Japanese
steakhouse for dinner. We tried a
new-to-us steakhouse; we’ll go back to our usual next time. Regardless, the food was great, and we had
some great conversation. (We also had
some church conversation; the people beside us were church shopping. What can you do…)
Then, we went to Barnes &
Noble just to browse. If you know my
husband, then you may know that the one kind of shopping he likes to do is book
shopping. His love of books may border
on obsession. Usually, we have the kids
in tow and spend our time in the children’s book section. So, leisure time to peruse shelves of books
(and walk off dinner) was relaxing and enjoyable and us.
Then, we went to dinner at the
Desserterie, which is a jewel of a local shop serving decadent desserts, coffee,
wine, and gelato. It’s the closest thing
around to the patisseries we fell in love with in France!
It was a great Valentine’s
date. We both enjoyed it and deemed it a
great night.
...which is significant considering
our history of Valentine’s dates. There
were the teenage years when he poured on over-the-top romance. There were the college years, once when we
were apart, once when the holiday was deemed “worldly” and therefore not
celebrated, and the next year when my roommates let him into my room to
literally cover every inch of the floor with those elementary-school Valentine’s. Then there were the married-without-kids
years when we splurged on great food at great restaurants; we love great food
at great, local restaurants. Then there
have been the married-with-kids years.
So, far we’ve spent one February 14 in the hospital thanks to RSV, and
then last year we came home on February 14 to a sick baby girl and promptly
cancelled the babysitter and dinner date.
Last year's Feb. 14 breakfast for the kids |
So, this year was a great
one. And we’re going to try something
new—spending Valentine’s evening with our kids.
As I tell them, “I love you to the sun and back.” (The grandparents already staked claim to “to
the moon and back;” the sun is further away.
Have I ever said I’m competitive?)
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Farther away. And I think I picked a planet like Neptune to jump into the competition of who loved the cute little ones the most.
ReplyDeleteGlad it was a good evening. It was a good evening for us, too.