When you've been married for more than thirty years, Valentine's Day doesn't always get the attention that it used to get. Those expensive dinners, long-stemmed roses, and two pound boxes of chocolates are nice memories but I have to admit, I like the pressure being off. It feels good not to have to succumb to the madness of picking out just the right $5.95 Hallmark ditty or think of something heart-shaped that my husband will actually want to use. (I scoured Home Depot to find tools with heart embellishments and came up empty and "Be My Valentine" boxers are definitely not my guy's style.)
So what does it say about us that this year Valentine's Day went relatively uncelebrated? For the first time, we did nothing on the actual day - no card, no flowers, no nothing. And do you know what? It was one of the best ever. The night before, we ventured out into the cold (because only those trying to impress or don't mind waiting for hours and dropping a couple days pay go out to dinner on the real Valentine's Day, right?) to have dinner at our local Olive Garden. Say what you will about the place, you get a lot for your money. We tried a couple of their new specials (the Parmesan crusted tortellini actually tasted very similar to a dish I had in Italy so all you Olive Garden haters can bite me), shared a quartino of wine (Chianti Riserva, if you're wondering. Good but gave me a headache. Next time will stick to the Shiraz or Malbec), and polished off a piece of the should-be-illegal white chocolate raspberry cheesecake.
If all of this sounds like we're getting old, we are. If all of this sounds like we've given up, we haven't. It was a really sweet evening of conversation about our kids, memories of our travels together, and making plans for our future.
And if that's not celebrating Valentine's Day, I don't know what is.
No comments:
Post a Comment