Maybe it’s because I work in the private sector and we hardly get any paid holidays off (so jealous of my teacher friends!!), but I love to celebrate holidays. Even if it’s just a sweet text message, or an attempt to replicate a project on Pinterest, or a sarcastic e-card, I love days that are a little out of the ordinary. And y’all know by now that I have the world’s biggest sweet tooth—so I fully support any celebration that involves sweets (especially chocolate).
Image via Someecards
I made homemade valentines when I was a kid, and my dad would always give me a valentine and a heart-shaped box full of chocolates. When I went off to college, I realized how much I missed that little ritual—especially the years when I didn’t have boyfriends. Valentine’s Day became a day that I celebrated with my single ladies—and we may or may not have watched Sex and the City marathons and gorged on ice cream. Don’t tell them I told you that.
Even when I did happen to be dating someone in February, I never made a big deal about the holiday. I just didn’t see what all the hype was about. I was like:
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I just don’t get excited by the massive consumerism surrounding Valentine’s Day. I’m not a teddy bear girl; I’m a kiss-me-in-the-rain, let’s-run-off-to-Paris kind of girl. Romance to me is all about sweet words, spontaneous adventures, and some of that je ne sais quois.
My brother’s girlfriend scoffs at the holiday. She’s celebrating February 14th by going to an anti-Valentine’s party at a karaoke bar with her friends. And that’s cool—I would have been totally down for that in college. I never would have guessed that one day I would grow up and get married and turn into a cheeseball. These days, Mr. W and I are all:
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So we’re celebrating Valentine’s Day our own way. We’re going to put on some fancy clothes (there’s never enough excuses to get dressed up, if you ask me), catch a couple exhibitions at the art museum (which is open free until late tomorrow—woo!), and then have dinner at our favorite restaurant. (Houston bees—Benjy’s is the shiz. If you haven’t been there, consider it a must.) It’s pretty cliche, yes, but we love art and good food, and we haven’t been out for a nice meal in a while.
I don’t believe in all of the hype surrounding the holiday, but I do get secretly excited for Valentine’s Day (as I do for any other holiday). I’m excited to put on my favorite LBD and go out with my favorite person in the world.
PS: Check out Mrs. Peep Toe’s tips on how to be more green on V-Day. I second her on the Green and Black organic chocolate—divine!
How do you celebrate (or ignore) Valentine’s Day? What’s your favorite Valentine’s Day memory?
(1) Benjys IS the shiz
(2) I don’t see why we can’t celebrate V-Day without being accused of being cheesy. Who cares! DH and I are going to eat cheap oysters and drink pink champagne. Yesssss
(3) My parents treated V-Day in a way I think others should adopt. V-Day is a day to celebrate love– not just romantic love, but love for all. My dad gave me flowers every year until I met my husband. They always still give me V-Day cards. I sent my little bro a box of V-Day stuff, too. Why not use the holiday to tell someone you love them–anyone!
I’m jealous! Mr. Lemur & I usually celebrate a low-key Valentine’s Day, but this year we’re 800 miles apart… good thing I’m flying up for the weekend & we can spend some delayed time together 
My dad used to buy my mom a dozen roses and each of his three daughters one. My brother would get a Matchbox car on a stick! Now that we’re long distance my parents send each of us a sweet card and some chocolate… I just got mine in the mail today.
We usually work, but this weekend we’re going to go see Die Hard 5. Don’t laugh, for some reason I love action flicks, and I adore Die Hard. One of our friends looked at him and said, “you’re really doing that?” I’m a action flicks, video game playing kinda nerd girl. I’m stoked. For christmas we purchased tickets to nick cave as our gift to each other and we still have that to look forward to next month!
We were never big on Valentine’s Day. I mean, we go out to dinner some time that week just to do it, and we say it’s for Valentine’s. My coworker is going to Chipotle with her SO, and that sounds amazing! So, I’m going to ask Mr. G if we can do that too. Really, I just use it as an excuse to eat cupcakes. But I still love my man, and he loves cupcakes too. So yay!
Funny story though: In high school for our first V-day, Mr. G showed up at my house with flowers and a big teddy bear (which is not really me, but it was sweet). The funny part was, I was down the street at my best friend’s house for a sleepover. He didn’t know I would be there, and I thought he was out of town! No wonder we don’t make a big deal out of it anymore. He was scarred.
I love the cheesiness that is Valentine’s Day! We always make homemade cards (his are awesome – sometimes with poems he wrote for me, sometimes with pop ups or moveable parts) for each other and some years he gets me a little gift, some not. But, as teachers, we are EXHAUSTED after work (hello classrooms of kids hyped up on candy), so we don’t do anything but lay on the couch and eat candy our students brought us!
We just ignore it, we made that deal a few years ago, since it felt forced and we had been together so long we figured we could say “I love you” any other day of the year with something other than overpriced candy and teddy bears. We are romantic like that. lol
Mr. Whale just said, “Are we doing anything for Valentine’s Day?” I replied, “Well, considering it’s in less than an hour, probably not.”
I would like to do more for Valentine’s Day in some years, but honestly, I just want to go on a nice date every once in a while. If that date happens to fall on Valentine’s Day, it’s just a bonus
My favorite valentine’s day (don’t tell FI) was when I was a poor student.
We decided to donate blood together, dined on the free cookies and soup you get after donating and walked around an aquarium shop and checked out fish. If we could be paid for blood here, it would have been cool to get a few bucks for dinner but that is just not how it is here so soup and cookies it was. As a gift he got me a marzipan chocolate bar – imported so like $1 more than the cheapo kinds hehe.
This year we’ll be going to a murder mystery dinner theatre at a historic landmark in the city. Macabre but very us.
@Lone Star: Awesome! Ya’ll are going to have so much fun I love the family traditions, too – that’s so sweet!
@Miss Lemur: Aww. I hope you two have a great weekend together, I can’t imagine how hard it is to soldier through a LDR!
@jilleeann: Hah awesome! Whatever makes you happy right?! And I’m pretty jelly that you’re seeing Nick Cave live, I love him!
@Mrs. Genie: Umm yes. Chipotle and cupcakes are the perfect meal IMO! Haha I can see how Mr. Genie was scarred, poor guy
@DaniLyn: Wish I had students to bring me candy! Your cards sound awesome, I hope you keep those to reread in the future, there’s nothing sweeter than handmade cards.
@Mrs. Toadstool: True! I prefer candy prices the day AFTER Valentine’s Day 
@Miss Blue Whale: Agreed!
@Pele: I L-O-V-E little adventures like that, we do those things all the time. That sounds awesome, and it’s something you could totally do again even though you’re not poor students anymore. Still, a murder mystery dinner sounds fun too – I love the idea of a macabre Valentine’s Day.
Oooh, my girlfriend just hosted her wedding dinner/celebration at Benjy’s last fall. It was amazing! While in town, I also managed to stuff my face at the Original Ninfa’s on Navigation and Reef. Yum. I think I need to go back immediately.
@eeper: Um yes, you need to go back ASAP I loooove the original Ninfa’s, they have the best fajitas! It’s such a cute old restaurant too.
I am 100% all in on Valentine’s Day. I love ANY day that gives people a reason to be a little happier and full of love and joy. Single or not, any excuse to celebrate is a win in my book.
We’re also being pretty typical this V-Day (our last as unmarried folk) by getting dressed up and going to a new, fancy place for dinner – which is way out of our comfort zone.
Happy V-Day to you and Mr. W – your first as a Mr. and Mrs.! Eat an extra yum in celebration.
I love Valentine’s Day, even if it has become such a commerical holiday!!!
This is the first year for my husband and myself to celebrate Valentine’s Day together (and really, the first either of us has celebrated V-Day with an SO) so I’m super excited!!!! We aren’t doing too much, just dinner at a place we both like and going to see the new Die Hard movie, but I don’t care. Its still the best Valentine’s Day I’ve ever had. Though he is going to have a hard time ever topping the gift me got me this year…..I got home last night to find he had gotten me a PUPPY!!!!! Now I have puppy love to celebrate too!! 
@StephK527: YES! Agreed.
@ItalianTraveler: Awwww!!!!!! We’re in the process of looking for a puppy to adopt, and I have like puppy fever. How exciting!!
We have never made a big deal of valentines day, it is so close to Christmas and our dating anniversary (which is in January), it just felt like too much. I still love getting flowers and chocolate, I just don’t expect them
I really enjoy Valentine’s day but have low expectations. As a result, I always get so excited when my fiance goes above and beyond for me. He tends to surprise me with nice flowers, chocolates or a delivery of warm cookies and milk to the office. Since we’re on a tight budget this year we’ll stick with flowers, chocolates and a moderately priced dinner. We’re going to Z’Tejas this year which is one of our Austin favorites. I just want to spend time with him no matter where we go.
I’ve definitely never been a Valentine’s Day hater. I’ve always enjoyed the chocolate if nothing else.
I do sometimes miss the days of eating take out Thai food and watched Sex & The City or Bridget Jones’ Diary on repeat. One of these days I’ll convince him to do this with me:)
Mrs. Wallaby, Houston Age and Occupation: 24, Environmental Engineer Engagement Date: January 1, 2012 Wedding Date: November 2012 Venue: Oak Tree Manor About Me: I'm a free-spirited, adventurous girl who loves anything active, reading, traveling, cooking up new dishes for my fiancé, and working on my budding garden. My fiancé is an athletic, intellectual, animal-loving guy with an obsession with basketball and who treats me with the deepest compassion and respect. We are both engineers, and we met at our workplace. Together we complement one another and make a great team, and we are excitedly counting down the days until our outdoor wedding in Houston in November. We're planning a green wedding with lots of Persian cultural touches, and I can't wait to share all of the before-and-after details of our special day
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