Love For Everybody!

Don't hate me but....I'm going to say it... I love Valentine's Day! I never liked Valentines Day until I became a mom though. Before I became a mom, Valentine's Days just seemed like a bunch of societal pressure to be romantic. And let's face it, most attempts to be romantic are exactly the same (I made you a card, I bought you some flowers, I sprinkled petals on the bed, it always seemed a little trite). Although, one year while we were still dating, my husband gave me an empty box wrapped in wrapping paper with a large hole in one end.. Dick In a Box...most hilarious V-day gift EVER!

Before I became a mom, V-day mostly brought back embarrassing memories of V-day's past. Like the one year in college I baked my cute frat-boy apartment neighbor some brownies in the shape of a heart and wrote "QT Pie" (except I used the mathematical pi symbol) on the top in red frosting. I wanted to hand deliver it personally to him and not his roomies so I stopped in the stairwell next to his apartment and pressed with my ear against the wall abutting his bedroom to try to scope out whether he was home. Unfortunately, at that precise moment, his roomate walked into the stairwell and found me standing there like a big FAT stalker. I turned as red as the frosting letters,  ran away, and ate the brownies by myself while I cried over what was clearly not meant to be. *Face Palm*

But now that I'm a mom, I LOVE to celebrate Valentine's Day. To me, the holiday is not so much about romance and trying to make a killer showing of affection for your significant other.  (My husband and I don't really celebrate V-Day...or anniversaries, or birthdays, or mother/father's days for that matter). To me, the holiday is about sprinkling the people I care about (whether they be my favorite checker at the grocery store, the mail man, my children, or grandparents) with little reminders about how important they are. It's about adding a smidgen of cheesy thoughtfulness to someone's day. It's about sending an unexpected letter in the mail to friends and family or surprise novel gifts for my kids. And if romance just happens to bloom, I won't fight it, of course :)

I mean, how can anyone not love a holiday that celebrates love (and chocolate)? And who says that the love we celebrate on Valentine's Day has to be the romantic kind of love? I say we should celebrate the less-exciting love. The love that so often goes unnoticed. The love that makes us sympathize with people we have never met. The love from which husbands listen to wives complain about their day without uttering a word of judgment. The love that makes us stand up for causes we strongly believe in. The love of our parents who sacrifice so we can obtain what we think we want (even if they know that we really won't want it). The love that drives us to smile at strangers. The love that encourages us to wash pee-soaked bed sheets for the third morning in a row when we would rather banish our children to sleeping in the bathtub. The love that helps us to fold laundry without complaining (most of the time).

THAT'S what I'M talking about! THAT'S what we should be celebrating on Valentine's Day.  EVERYONE can appreciate THAT kind of love. Am I right?

So, Happy Valentines Day to my fellow bloggers. Thanks for all the virtual love you guys always throw my way.