Thursday 9 February 2017

5 things we're not doing for Valentine's Day


I have always had a love/hate relationship with Valentine's Day. As a teenager, I avidly read the special newspaper liftout full of messages, and dreamed about one of them being for me; as a young mum, I sent in one of those messages myself (with no response from my partner, we split up a few months later); now married for lots of years and overrun by cherubs, Valentine's Day has become just another day that our budget doesn't stretch to.

1 - have "special cuddles"

Did you miss the bit about lots of cherubs? There's still one languishing in our bed! Not to mention getting out of bed at stupid o'clock, and just being knackered by the time all those cherubs are finally curled up in bed. We'll save the action for the weekend.

2 - cook a 3 course dinner for 2 (or 6)

Some nights I'm struggling to get anyone to eat, let alone a fancy-schmancy dinner for 2[6]. Steve really doesn't care about food that much, as long as it fills a hole, and he doesn't end up with complications during the night (he suffers from GORD) We'll have crumbed chicken with garlic prawns for those that like them (the girls and Steve and I), followed by cheesecake, which everyone loves.

3 - buy flowers

I love flowers! Whether it's cheap and cheerful from the supermarket, or a bouquet from the florists, who doesn't love flowers bought just for them? But I've never found somewhere suitable to display them in this house. The limited surfaces are cluttered, or out of sight, and what's the point of flowers if you can't see them?

4 - buy gifts

Natalie needs new school shoes, I haven't paid Douglas' school fees yet, the fridge door fell off. There's always something more important to spend money on. That doesn't mean we go without, it's just that we both tend to buy things as we want them and have the money available. I think parents often fall into that trap.

5 - do crafts with the kids

Pinterest has a lot to answer for! We won't be decorating the house, inside or out, or making any decorations with the kids. We won't be sending Valentine's Day treats to school (that doesn't seem to have taken off in Australia, yet), or any other "thing" that is trending at the moment.

What we will be doing is spending time together, enjoying each other's company (as much as you can on a Tuesday school night.) Maybe we'll even have a game of UNO while eating our cheesecake.

What will you be doing for Valentine's Day?
flower images from Aussie World Flowers
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7 comments

  1. For valentines, I would definitely do crafts with kids and probably expect a bouquet from my husband. :)

    Jacq
    jacqwritesworld.com

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  2. There won't be much romance happening over here either Cate. The last couple of years SD has got a year 7 to make me a card from him. The first one I called 'The Purple Donut Of Love' and most of the bits fell off it and last year I got a strange one eyes monster with SD's sentiment 'I've Got My Eye On You' written in it - who knows what this year will bring! Spending time together is the thing that really counts (although flowers would be lovely too ...).

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  3. We usually don't do anything special for Valentine's day either! Definitely a day to be with the kids, although I wouldn't be attempting any craft. Maybe when the boys are older, haha!

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  4. UNO with cheesecake sounds fabulous! We are going out to dinner the night after Valentine's as everywhere will be packed on the actual day and we both hate crowds. Lol. #UltimateRabbitHole

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  5. We don't do Valentine's Day, mainly because our anniversary is 2 days later and hubby figures that's enough (that's what we should focus on!). We're going out for our first date in over 3 months since having our little one, so if we make it out the door for us that is success.
    P.S. Cheesecake is always a good way to celebrate!

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  6. In the olden days when we were dating and first married, we'd always go out and have a fancy dinner to celebrate Valentine's. These days, we prefer to stay at home, because let's face it, love is love and when you're in a great relationship every day is like Valentine's (just without the commercialism!)

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  7. Love it! This is exactly what we do as well and I love UNO! Time together with our family is all we need. I love flowers but as I wrote in my blog post about being a non valentine they die in a couple of days anyway! I didn't do the ads in the paper but I did do the percentage that my boyfriend loved me using our names!
    #humpdayhype

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