Happy Valentine’s Day!

There, I gave you all the same thing I gave my family for Valentine’s Day – a greeting.

I don’t really have anything against Valentine’s Day.  Sure, it’s a silly little tradition that lets flower shops, craft stores, greeting card companies, and chocolatiers rake in the dough.  If people want to buy into that, go for it.

Over the years I’ve done my share of shopping for candy and kitsch.  Not so much any more though.  I’m just getting too old and cranky for that kind of stuff. 

Last year I gave my family (The Husband and The Kids) a subscription to Netflix*.  It was a rather self-serving gift though.  I’d been wanting to move away from the Hollywood video scene of driving to the store, spending hours arguing with the kids about what to rent, losing track of when movies were due, and paying late fees for movies I hadn’t even enjoyed.  Ugh.  Since the desire to check out Netflix was sometime in early February, it occurred to me to justify the monthly subscription fee by calling it a Valentine’s Day gift.  I even signed up using the debit card linked to my own personal checking account (rather than use, as I usually do, a credit card that he husband pays).  Even more, I kept it on my debit card for almost the whole year.  Now if that ain’t love, I don’t know what is!

Tonight I made dinner — chicken breasts baked under a white sauce gravy with buttermilk biscuits (made from scratch, naturally), extra gravy, and asparagus spears.  It was quite delicious if I do say so myself.  And more “middle American” in it’s fare (all that gravy) than my typical meals.  Everyone loved it and The Husband assumed I’d planned it for Valentine’s Day.  I saw no point in bursting his bubble by telling him that The Son had chosen the meal back on Monday while making the shopping list and weekly menu.

I could say that I eschew the commercial trappings of Valentine’s Day as a demonstration of my disdain for the crass manner in which corporations have hijacked … yada yada.  Like I said, if they can get the public to fall for it and spend their hard-earned cash on baubles and chocolate, so be it.

In my life, every day is Valentine’s Day.  My husband and kids would certainly agree that I’m not stingy with my “I love you’s”.  Hugs and kisses are never in short supply either.  I demonstrate my love in a thousand little ways every day — in the way I pack a lunch for The Daughter on school days, in the way I search all corners of the earth for comfortable underwear for The Son, in the way The Husband’s underwear and sock drawer magically refills itself and never, ever gets completely empty.  It’s in the way I stay up past midnight plunging our toilet so he can use our bathroom in the morning.  Or the way I sit and watch them all eat dinner in a restaurant, patiently waiting until we get home so I can eat my own bland hypo-allergenic dinner.

The best part is that Valentine’s Day is a two-way — well, really, it’s a four-way — street in our house.  I’m certainly not the only one doling out daily doses of love.  Everyone in our family, even The 13-yo Son, is free with their “I love you’s” and hugs.  The Husband demonstrates his love and devotion in the way he gets up at 6:30 every morning for The Daughter’s commute to school; in the way he never, ever, ever complains or criticizes no matter what I do, don’t do, or forget to do; in the way he gets up every single day and goes to work to provide so generously for his family.  The Son and The Daughter show it in their moments of generosity toward each other, in their moments of solicitousness toward me, and in the way they laugh at their dad’s jokes no matter how lame.

All I can say is, sorry, Hallmark, but cupid lives with us full time.

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