A Simple Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is a holiday that I don't celebrate. As a child, I enjoyed making valentine boxes and opening my cards and candy. Then as I grew, the boxes, cards, and candy stopped. The holiday turned into an obsession with buying things and people without a significant other were always depressed. I didn't like that and thus, decided I didn't want to participate. Brandt had other ideas.

Brandt said he felt like he should get me something and followed through every year, despite my protests. I can't lie, it is nice to be reminded that I'm loved though it felt stupid it was required on a certain day. The last four Valentine's Days Brandt has sent me flowers at work. I'd always secretly desired that my S.O. would send me flowers at work and he was the first to do it. Even on "just because" days, I'd become giddy like a little girl when I walked to the front desk and saw a beautiful bouquet. I hate being a typical anything, especially a typical girl, but I love flowers! I'd always proudly display them on my desk.

This year, with money tight and no "grown up" job I knew I wouldn't be getting flowers at work. Finally, Brandt was going to listen to my constant griping about how dumb this holiday was. Then when I was bombarded by all of the hearts and cute valentines at Target every day, I had a terrible feeling: I didn't hate this holiday so much any more. Maybe I'm getting older, maybe Brandt broke through my icy exterior, maybe my crafting has made me love all holidays. Who really knows.

I thought it would be nice to do a little something for my boyfriend since he always did a little something for me. I couldn't decide what to do and didn't want to spend any money. I'd almost given up when I was scrolling through my Pinterest page and came across an adorable I idea I'd pinned months ago! I'd make him a bouquet of beer! It was simple, cheap, partially handmade, and definitely not a traditional gift. Just my type of thing!

On Valentine's Day, I left his "flowers" in the fridge and went to work. When he got home from work, Brandt loved his present but was upset that I'd given him something and he had nothing for me. I told him not to worry because he always gets me flowers and this year it was his turn.

Silly guy did go out and get me a gift though. Best part was the note...

I cracked up and thanked him for my macaroni salad. There had been some in the fridge the week before but he'd destroyed it before I got any. When I went to eat it, I mentioned I was sad that it was gone. Now, he bought me my own! (I've censored the note for anyone sensitive to such verbiage.)

It was also our second year of exchanging digital valentine's. We constantly frequent meme sites such as themetapicture.com and imgr.com and had saved a lot of cheesy valentine memes last year. We spent the entire day sending them back and forth. We did the same this year during my last break. We didn't have as many but it was nice to laugh and know we'd been thinking of each other. I took a screenshot to give you an idea of how dumb/awesome they are. It's way better than spending money on one card. We can give as many as we want for free!

And so ended our fifth Valentine's Day. No big dinner (we hate crowds), no plants, no chocolate. Just two nerds giving each other cheesy gifts "homemade" gifts. I think it was our best V.D. so far!