Valentine's Day should be every day

Happy Valentine's Day! I had so much fun with this holiday as a kid. Exchanging valentines at school, wearing red, and having our traditional Valentine's meal where my mom dyed the potatoes and applesauce red and made red Jell-o, red velvet cake, and red sugar cookies for dessert. (We take our holidays seriously.) It's still a fun holiday for me as an adult. I love to decorate for holidays! But Valentine's Day can also be annoying and sometimes ridiculous.

The front cover of all the local department store fliers have been identical for the past week or so with half of the page devoted to jewelry and the other portion showing lingerie. I find this highly amusing that men are expected to buy some bling and women are supposed to put on something sexy for their men. For one thing, I don't like anyone telling me how to celebrate my holidays. Fine jewelery is not something practical at this point in my life. Where would I wear my new diamond earrings and necklace? To the bathroom? That's the only place I could keep away from my sweet little one year old's grabby hands. And if I wear lingerie on V-Day, does that mean I can be a witch to my husband the rest of the year since I did my part for the holiday? Not to mention all the pressure put on men to "get it right". Don't mess up Valentine's Day or you are in the dog house. Forget what good you may do and how you show your love the other 364 days of the year. This is the only day that matters!

I have no problem celebrating Valentine's Day. I am all for being cute and romantic. But I do think this "celebration of love" (gag) should be a regular occurrence. You better not be saving up your little random acts of kindness, tender words, love notes, etc. only for this one day or else you will have one very love starved relationship. I think it's more meaningful when someone does something sweet when they are not told to and it is not expected of them. For instance, a few weeks ago my husband wrote "I love you" in the dirt on my van window. Way romantic you say, right? I do! How sweet to know he was thinking of me and wanting to write it. Or what about when he sings love songs to me while helping me clean. Totally priceless. The list could go on and on. We don't need a holiday to remind us to be nice and show love to each other, we already do that all the time. It's those little moments of thoughtfulness that feed a marriageand make a happy and healthy relationship.

Have fun on Valentine's Day! Wear red, eat chocolate, or do whatever it is you do. But remember that really loving and caring about someone is something you should show more than just once a year.