A Valentine’s Day idea that requires some planning

(I wrote this post earlier this morning but apparently didn’t hit “publish”. Whoops.)

This will be a quick post because it’s 7:04 at the moment, and in 56 short minutes, I need to be fed and presentable and I also need to have 4 fed, presentable children (it would also be good if my house was presentable).

That’s because today is my official return to piano teaching after the holidays. Boo for the return to routine.

K, so, Valentine’s Day is coming up.

Now, I know there are a bunch of you out there who are all, “Valentine’s Day is a stupid, made-up, Hallmark holiday and why in the world would you celebrate it because you should show your love every day.”

And to that I say, “You are party-poopers.”

😉

Mr. FG and I are VERY on board with the idea of showing love year round (in fact, Mr. FG just gave me a very sweet present yesterday for no particular reason or occasion, but I’m not going to tell you what it is because I want to show you. And it’s too dark to take a picture right now. Besides, I don’t have time!).

Speaking of which, I should get to the point.

Anyways, yes, we should totally show our love year-round, and no, we should not celebrate Valentine’s Day by spending too much money buying large, ugly stuffed animals holding hearts that say, “I love you.”.

But Valentine’s Day can be a super fun excuse to spoil each other a little bit, and that’s how Mr. FG and I treat it.

A couple of years ago, I read about an idea that I knew would be right up Mr. FG’s alley. We call it The 14 Days of Valentines, and it is pretty entrenched as a tradition around here now.

Each day from February 1-14th, I give Mr. FG a little present or surprise of some sort. Mr. FG is the sort of person who is very touched when someone gives him a thoughtful gift, so having 14 of these in a row makes him happy.

Making this happen does take some planning ahead, which is why I’m sharing the idea now (last year I mentioned it on Valentine’s Day, I think, which was a little late!). I usually make a list of my 14 ideas so that I’m not stuck trying to come up with a gift on the day it’s supposed to be given.

Sharing my list of ideas with you probably won’t be super helpful because if you want to do this, you need to study your spouse/boyfriend/girlfriend.

But just in case they might get your gears turning, here are some of the things I’ve done in past years.

In order to keep this from being insanely expensive, I generally keep the gifts pretty small. Sometimes, I buy him a food item that doesn’t normally fit into our budget (like the gourmet orange cream sodas that come in glass bottles).

Sometimes I cook or bake something for him that I don’t normally get around to cooking or baking (like Sweet and Sour Shrimp, which I rarely make because of the smell/mess of frying!).

Sometimes I buy him something like a novelty t-shirt, or some MP3 downloads.

Sometimes I arrange for babysitting and surprise him with a lunch or dinner out.

And because it’s a Valentine’s Day thing, some of the surprises are things that wouldn’t be appropriate to share here. I’m sure you can figure out that stuff without any help from me. 😉

In recent years, Mr. FG has been joining me, but doing things a little differently. I’m not super into gifts, but I do really love compliments and encouragement from Mr. FG. So, he hides a little note somewhere around the house for me to find, and I enjoy that more than I’d enjoy a daily present.

If you’re looking for something fun and new to do for Valentine’s this year, do give this a try, even if you just do it for one. And hey, you could always just do seven days of Valentine’s if two weeks is too much for you.

Have fun!