What are you getting/ giving for Valentines Day?

[SB621]

What is everyone getting their SO for Valentines Day?
What are you hoping to get?

Our anniversary is right around V-day so we always do dinner out. I will probably also make a cake with the kids to give to DH.
For his gift I was thinking about a running watch I know he wants
For me I would be content with some books as I'm an avid reader, I'm not expecting anything nicer then that because I have had some major bling purchases lately.

 

[Skippy123]

We don't usually do much on Valentine's day. My husband usually makes me a heart shaped pizza though and hopefully he does it again this year My husbands bday is about a week and a half before Valentines so we celebrate his birthday. I bought him shirts for his bday!


HAPPY ANNIVERSARY soon!!!!

 

[ame]

If anything a nice dinner and a card. We don't really honor it bec it's kind of a made up holiday.

 

[SB621]

If anything a nice dinner and a card. We don't really honor it bec it's kind of a made up holiday.

I agree but I love the idea that for 1 random day (at least to me) you should try to go out of your way to show your SO how much you care and appreciate them. I always try to be creative on V-day!

 

[Ally T]

We only ever swap cards on Valetnines, but my husband does go out of his way to bring me flowers, cook a lovely 3 course dinner & open a nice bottle of champers. He generally uses V-Day to remind me how much he appreciates everything I do in running the house & busy young children whilst he works long days. A sparklie gift would always be welcome, of course, but never happens!

 

[ame]

If anything a nice dinner and a card. We don't really honor it bec it's kind of a made up holiday.

I agree but I love the idea that for 1 random day (at least to me) you should try to go out of your way to show your SO how much you care and appreciate them. I always try to be creative on V-day!

Um, he's still alive and still my Dh. That IS me going out of my way to show him how much I care and appreciate him. Because he is a pain to live with!

 

[Deactivated member 42515]

If anything a nice dinner and a card. We don't really honor it bec it's kind of a made up holiday.

I agree but I love the idea that for 1 random day (at least to me) you should try to go out of your way to show your SO how much you care and appreciate them. I always try to be creative on V-day!

Um, he's still alive and still my Dh. That IS me going out of my way to show him how much I care and appreciate him. Because he is a pain to live with!

Hahahah! Yes! Husbands are children! But we love them and we are doing them a huge favor everyday by putting up with them!

DH and I don't celebrate Vday. Our anniversary is February 27th so we just do that.

But, I do believe I will be ordering a little something something that just happens to be around Vday. So excited

 

[monarch64]

If anything a nice dinner and a card. We don't really honor it bec it's kind of a made up holiday.

Ha, it is a made-up holiday for sure, but at least it's been around a bit longer than Sweetest Day which is one I refuse to get behind.

I've related this here before, but when I was growing up my dad made a big deal out of Valentine's Day and my dad and mom both still send me a Valentine (separately) every year. So it's still a tradition for me. I've never needed flowers/candy/dinner from a significant other and my husband and I don't go overboard, but a small gesture is certainly welcome.

I read about "Broquets" recently on a blog. It's basically a bucket full of man stuff that revolves around a "man-activity" thing like camping or beer making or golf, etc. Kind of a cute idea if you're into giving your SO something for V-Day.

I did order Valentine photo cards with our daughter's pictures on them to send to about 25 close friends and family this year. The recipients will all be appreciative (far away relatives and friends who don't get to see her) and it was an inexpensive way to reach out instead of the impersonal social networks/e-cards.

I'll give my husband a card and his favorite candy bars since they come in heart shapes during the season, and maybe he'll give me flowers and a card. I'm sure we'll make dinner and watch a movie at home. I did recently buy some lacy things, perhaps those will make an appearance, but that will be it! No grand gestures here.

 

[Amber St. Clare]

So we are going against our long held tradition of not really celebrating Valentine's Day to going all out:



a brand new, shiny



WATER HEATER to go with our brand new furnace.

How can a girl get so lucky!!!!!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

We normally do not exchange gifts. Dh does give me something flowers or candy, but nothing big. The kids are going to be away for that weekend and we'll go to a movie & get drinks & something to eat.

 

[Laila619]

I'm getting myself something from Tiffany and Co. "from" DH. Most likely it will be the Elsa Peretti teardrop pendant in 18k yellow gold.

http://www.tiffany.com/Shopping/Item.aspx?fromGrid=1&sku=28827652&mcat=148204&cid=287465&search_params=s+5-p+4-c+287465-r+101323339-x+-n+6-ri+-ni+0-t+

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Poor Amber!!!! Lucky Laila!!!!

We keep it low key, too. Usually cards. He always brings me flowers and will either cook dinner or go out. I usually prefer to relax at home and avoid the crowds, though! It's just too close to Christmas and our anniversary for me to think about a bling gift, so I almost never do a gift for Valentines, and I don't get him anything, either, just because I usually exhaust all my ideas during the Dec. holidays.

 

[Ally T]

So we are going against our long held tradition of not really celebrating Valentine's Day to going all out:



a brand new, shiny



WATER HEATER to go with our brand new furnace.

How can a girl get so lucky!!!!!

My brother bought my sister in law a new hot water tap for Valentines last year

 

[Dreamer_D]

Well, I think I will just make sure to have sex with him that day! That is my present to him.

It fits our budget and busy lifestyle: Its free and fast

 

[Dreamer_D]

I'm getting myself something from Tiffany and Co. "from" DH. Most likely it will be the Elsa Peretti teardrop pendant in 18k yellow gold.

http://www.tiffany.com/Shopping/Item.aspx?fromGrid=1&sku=28827652&mcat=148204&cid=287465&search_params=s+5-p+4-c+287465-r+101323339-x+-n+6-ri+-ni+0-t+

I love that! I have been thining of buying myself one of those types of pendants on ebay. I have like $70 ebay bucks to spend and think I would like something like that. I want to see neck shots though! There is not a local Tiffany where I am

 

[JewelFreak]

Aww, Amber, bummer! At least it's shiny, though -- maybe next year you can get something sparkly to go with it!

Skippy, I love the heart-shaped pizza! How cute. My b'day is Valentine's Day & when I was a kid, I always had a heart-shaped b'day cake.

And since this year is a beeeg b'day for me, I'm getting a new wedding ring! Waiting for quotes now, yahooo.

--- Laurie

 

[ame]

Well, I think I will just make sure to have sex with him that day! That is my present to him.

It fits our budget and busy lifestyle: Its free and fast

 

[rosetta]

Well, I think I will just make sure to have sex with him that day! That is my present to him.

It fits our budget and busy lifestyle: Its free and fast

I'm thinking whether I could also give this present.

It might be a little difficult as we will be in an airplane flying to Vietnam on valentines day.....

 

[yennyfire]

If anything a nice dinner and a card. We don't really honor it bec it's kind of a made up holiday.

This.

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

I buy heart shaped marshmallow hearts and jellies and chocolate covered pretzels. But NO flowers and dinners out; don't like the bad service and rushed atmosphere in restaurants b/c of Valentines Day. And since I buy flowers every week or second week for me/the house, it is no biggie for me.

cheers--Sharon

 

[Circe]

A writer friend of mine, Cat Valente, wrote the best damned thing I've ever read about Valentine's Day a few years ago ... basically the perfect rebuttal to the pressure to opt out of the "fake" holiday as opposed to enjoying it for what it's worth: [WARNING, LONG QUOTE TO FOLLOW]

I have never understood the desire to stomp all over Valentine's Day and snuff it out. Every year I look over my friends' list and it's a litany of "This is a fake Hallmark holiday and no one should celebrate it" and "I hate this day, who's with me?" and my personal favorite guilt trip: "If you REALLY loved your partner, you'd treat them specially every day."

I don't get it. I don't understand the fervor to destroy a holiday. To force others to see it through the same black glasses. To shame anyone who celebrates the 14th with anything other than bile, vitriol, and the occasional superior sneer.

I know that most of us were shunned on Valentine's Day in school. Believe me, my little cubby was empty, just like yours, and I yearned for a construction paper heart from boy after boy--and never got them. I understand that there is a history of trauma, and the standard geek reaction to past trauma is to organize the world so that there is no chance of that trauma re-occurring. Thus, Valentine's Day must be killed.

But here's the thing. This world is a beautiful place, but it is also often dark, and cold, and unfeeling, and life slips by, not because it is short, but because it is so difficult to hold onto. Holidays, rituals, these things demarcate the time. They remind us of the sharpness of pleasure and the nearness of death. They tell us when the sun leaves, and when it comes back. They tell us to dance and they tell us to sleep. They tell us who we are, who we have been since we lived on the savannah and hoped to taste cheetah before we died. I know we're all punk rock rebels, but the paleolithic joy of ****ing in the fields and dancing around a fire doesn't go away just because certain of us would like to think we're beyond that. This world needs more holidays, not less. More ritual, the gorgeous, flexible, non-dogmatic kind that isn't about religion but about ecstasy in the sheer humanness of our bodies and souls. More chances to reach out, to sing, to love, to bedeck ourselves in ritual colors and become splendid as the year turns around.

And no, I'm sorry. It doesn't work to say "make every day special." First of all, most of you know damn well that you don't shower your partner with gifts and adoration and that most precious of things: dedicated, mindful time every day of the year. Even the best relationship is not a 24/7 orgiastic festival of plenty and perfect moments. No human can sustain it. If every day is special, none of them are. If every day is special, specialness becomes monotony. What makes days special is the time between, the anticipation of a the day, the planning, the surprises, coming together, cooking, playing, reveling in sheer time, watching the dedicated colors and rituals that wire our brain for pleasure spring up in the world to remind us that we live in it. The entire purpose of holidays is that they are a kind of otherworld we step into, full of special symbols, that informs and shapes everyday life--and some of life, no matter how some bloggers would like to deny it in their Grinchitude, is always everyday.

We celebrate the harvest. We celebrate the spring. We celebrate birthdays and death-days and the beginning of the year and the end of the year. We celebrate our parents and labor and Presidents. What in the world is so terribly wrong with celebrating love? I know not all of us have partners, but it is a rare soul who is without love of any kind. What kind of shrunken, sour heart does it take to insist that everyone else stop delighting in ritual and love? So few of us post about the magic of holidays--I think they're ashamed to. It's not cool to take unabashed pleasure in the silly and the soft-hearted.

As for the commercialism of it--well. It is commercial. So is every holiday, yet somehow we don't stomp all over Easter the way we tar and feather Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day is no more a fake holiday than any other. If I hear someone call it a Hallmark holiday I'm actually going to scream. I'm only going to say this once:

Valentine's Day, boys and girls, entered the Western mind in Chaucer's Parlement of Foules, fully-realized as a day to celebrate love via an obscure saint, with red hearts and everything. Yes, celebrated in an allegorical bird-nation, but guess what? That makes it even more awesome. I will take a holiday my buddy Geoff invented over almost any other. If I had my way, we'd start exchanging bird-themed gifts and ditch Cupid.

This is a great holiday. It's pure physical, sensual pleasure, divorced from any dogma at this point. Saint whatever. Pass the sex and food.

And as a medieval holiday, it has quite a long pedigree, thank you very much, even if you don't count in the Lupercalia (which you really shouldn't, unless wolf skins play a large part in your personal celebrations. If so, more power to you). The fact is, some human made up every single holiday there is. They're ALL fake. No one is more real or authentic than any other. At least this one was invented by a broke poet instead of a bunch of sex-starved priests. We live in a postmodern world--everything is what we make it. If Hallmark wants to force mainstream kids to buy jewelry they can't afford, they're more than welcome. I don't have to care about that, or take part in it. But I also don't have to get up on a soapbox and crush their joy in it. I know better. I know this day is an act of literature made flesh. But their world is not less valid for being Geoff-less.

And more than Geoff--think about it for a second. In the midst of winter, we are encouraged to come together and have sex (let's not be coy.) To escape the snow and ice in each others' bodies. The colors are red and rose and white--the colors of fire in the winter, of blood, of flesh, survival even in the barren times. We exchange hearts, the very vital core of our bodies. It is the last holiday before spring, to remind us that the fertile world will come again, with flowers and sweetness and love. Even surrounded by death, by blood on the snow, be it St. Valentine's blood or your own, life will win out. The traditional food is chocolate--which can be preserved through the winter and does not rot, full of sugar and fat which keep our bodies going through lean times. This holiday is as old as time: o world, even in the freezing storm, come together, make love, make children, feast, smile, and know the sun is coming soon.

Seriously, you have to stop trying to take that away. If you remove ritual from the world, you leave it greyer, and sadder, and all you have in its place is the triumph of having ruined something another person loved, which is a shallow and bitter triumph indeed. Get down off the soapbox, have a little chocolate, look out at the melting snow, and say something kind to someone you love. To be human is to take part in ritual, to demarcate the time with feasting and song and vestments and ecstasy. Life slips by, so very fast. Spend it in the practice of joy, not the destruction of it.

Happy Valentine's Day. Geoff bless us. Every one.

 

[Laila619]

^ Circe, I love that!!

"It's a made up holiday" is kind of silly, because technically EVERY holiday is made up--Mother's Day/Father's Day, Halloween, Labor Day etc. etc. Christmas is way over-commercialized but no one complains about that! So I say embrace Valentine's Day and have fun with it. Do those same guys who complain about V Day being "made up" not get their moms anything for Mother's Day, because that's made up too?

 

[blingymo]

Well, I think I will just make sure to have sex with him that day! That is my present to him.

It fits our budget and busy lifestyle: Its free and fast

LOL. I'm choking.

 

[chemgirl]

We usually do "garage tub" which is just a rental hot tub in the garage. It started off as a bit of a joke, but its actually pretty cool! Plus DH has to clean out the garage before I'm willing to get in a hot tub in there so yey clean garage!

Garage tub is very clean. No strange hairs or creepy diseases to date.

Our furnace blew this year so we are thinking of saving the cash and doing a nice dinner at home instead. I do have some leftover Lindt Christmas chocolates that may make their way into a fondu.

Overall we just use the holiday as an excuse to do something we normally wouldn't do.

 

[Dancing Fire]

nothing ...

 

[Dancing Fire]

Well, I think I will just make sure to have sex with him that day! That is my present to him.

It fits our budget and busy lifestyle: Its free and fast

i just PEEEED in my pants!!!...

 

[jaysonsmom]

Well, I think I will just make sure to have sex with him that day! That is my present to him.

It fits our budget and busy lifestyle: Its free and fast

Darn! Now I know what hubby will be getting me for Valentines! He thinks like you

 

[monarch64]

Circe, that was beautiful; thanks for posting!

 

[04diamond<3]

Well, I think I will just make sure to have sex with him that day! That is my present to him.

It fits our budget and busy lifestyle: Its free and fast

probably this. Although the 14th is a Thursday.... His little brother was born on Vday and it's always ruined Vday for us so...Although when we were dating I'd get a fluffy stuffed kitten with some truffles and roses.

 

[tuffyluvr]

I have never been big on Valentines Day. FI and I like to poke fun at the cheesiness of it, so for the last 4 years we have made a big cheese fondue dinner together... Because nothing says romance like gorging yourself on cheese and bread! And after the meal you feel *so* sick that there is zero chance of sexytime. We usually finish the night moaning in pain, not ecstasy, because our bellies are overly full and we feel ill ;P

Romantic, eh?

We don't do extravagant Valentine's gifts. Last year I did a small line drawing--black ink on watercolor paper--of a bulldog with a red heart tag on its collar. It was thoughtful, but it only took about an hour and obviously didn't cost anything. I do get flowers from him because one of our friends is a florist. He does it more to support her business than because it's Valentine's. Never red roses, though. Never roses at all. Not my thing.