I’m a romance writer, which means I would be remiss if I ignored Valentine’s Day.
Right?
I have to be completely, straight-up honest. Hubby and I don’t really get into Valentine’s Day. We don’t do cards or chocolate or cute little teddy bears. It’s not because we’re not romantic people. It’s more because we’re not holiday people.
Before anyone gasps in shock and horror, let me assure you.
We enjoy holidays. We really do.
I’m just saying, there are two types of people in this world.
There are those who go balls to the wall with decorations and festive hats and holiday traditions. Like my aunt Marlene, who has earrings and sweaters and funny head apparel for every holiday known to man. Reindeer antlers and glittery Fourth of July top hats and fuzzy black cat ears.
Then there are those like me and the hubs. Sometimes we watch fireworks on the Fourth of July. We hardly ever stay up until midnight on New Year’s Eve. We don’t hand out candy on Halloween because we’re too lazy to keep going to the door every other minute. And we don’t exchange cards on Valentine’s Day.
I will admit though. Our son had a Valentine’s Day party at preschool and everyone exchanged cards. It was incredibly cute watching Brogan choose the Valentine’s he wanted to give his little friends. He picked dinosaurs. When I got them out, he kept trying to play Memory with them.
But I digress.
The point of this post is to talk about Valentine’s Day.
And although I just admitted I don’t get into the holiday that much, I do have one Valentine’s Day in particular that I will always, always remember.
Four years ago. New York City.
Hubby and I decided to go for a long weekend.
On the last night, I had a dream that I took a pregnancy test and it was positive. I woke up in our hotel, The Wellington (sounds fancy, doesn’t it?), and was super bummed. I wanted to be pregnant. So I decided to take a pregnancy test.
And guess what? It was positive!
Four years ago, I found out I was pregnant on Valentine’s Day in New York City with my husband. For the rest of the trip, we joked that if we had a boy, we should name him Wellington. We could call him Wells for short. It didn’t stick.
By far, my favorite Valentine’s Day ever.
Let’s Talk: What do you think about Valentine’s Day? Tell me about your favorite Valentine’s Day memory.
*photo by tashalynn0708
Wonderful story! I’m so glad you have that precious memory. I hope you’ve written it down in Brogan’s baby book. 🙂
Before Beloved came into the picture, Valentine’s Day was more a source of pain than happiness. Since he died, I’m reminded of the bittersweet song in The King and I: Hello, young lovers.
My husband always shops for Valentine’s Day for me and the kids, but it’s more token than a big deal about gifts. And I HATE to go out to eat for any holiday. Time is valuable to me, so spending an hour waiting in a restaurant lobby or getting slow service because they are packed is not my idea of a good time. Just the token gift symbolizing that he took time to think about what I might like is enough….
This is why Ryan and I usually go out to eat at weird times, like 4:30. We hate sitting in the lobby!
Whata sweet story! I loved it!
My hubby is Mr. Romance…so he would burst if he didn’t get to do anything for me on Valentine’s Day. He has always made it special since we were dating (27 yrs ago…).
My most heart-wrenching V-Day was in 1991 because my husband was overseas in the first Gulf War in Bahrain, Kuwait. I ordered a teddy bear to be sent to him way out there in the desert and was thrilled to received a photograph of him holding the teddy bear while sitting on his government issued bunk. I still have that bear, too.
It was hard to be away from each other during the first couple of years of our marriage. The hubs has made up for it every year since.
P.S. my son made me a Valentine this year! Mind you, he’s sixteen, so you can imagine how surprised I was! I have it hanging in my cubicle at work. One for the memory books!
Okay, I absolutely LOVE the teddy bear story!! Your husband must have taught your son well. Sixteen and making his mom a V-day card? That is awesome!
That is indeed one of the best Valentine’s Day stories I have ever heard.
Our anniversary is on Valentine’s Day, so we go all out. Gifts, cards, chocolate, and out to eat at the fanciest place we can find.
I love that you dreamed you were pregnant and it was true. You are a writer indeed.
I LOVE that valentine’s story. I’m not one for the holiday either, but my dad did propose to my mom 28 years ago on Valentine’s Day. 😉 WHAT a story to tell your son (and his wife) someday. 😉
Great story! If you were the Beckham’s that handsome son of yours would have been named Wellington! :O)
Cute story, Katie! My husband and I don’t go all out for valentine’s either, but this year I got roses from two men. Red ones from my hubby, and yellow ones from my five-year-old son, who reportedly started crying when he went into the flower shop with Daddy and was told only Daddy was getting flowers for Mommy. I guess his tears worked!
That is so cute! You’ve got a little romantic on your hands!
Very sweet! How about “Welly” for short? I was in love with the Gladiator movie at the time when I was pregnant and so wanted to name our son Maximus…but that got nixed 🙂 Max would have been normal for a nickname, right? But I went with Joshua – after the cat instead.
My husband and I dont do “Hallmark” holidays either or even do cards on our anniversary…we are more into spending time together and making memories instead…a bike ride, a hike, a nice dinner…I’m not cheap but I cant see spending $4 on a card! 🙂 Thanks for sharing your story!
I’m so with you on the cards, Donna! I am so not about the cards!
I love the name Max! Is Maximus usually the long version for Max?
Love this story! So cool, Katie.
We’re the same way about Valentine’s Day. We don’t do much to celebrate, although my husband surprised me with roses this year. 🙂 We tend to make a bigger deal of our anniversary and birthdays instead.
One of the coolest things I ever did on Valentine’s Day was write an article and have it published in our Valentine’s edition…in my college newspaper (I went to Arizona Sstate University, a very large school). The article was an op ed (I was the editor of the special publications section, where the article was located) about love…and how the only real, lasting love comes from knowing Jesus. I’m still shocked to this day that my boss let me put it in, but since I was in charge of content, it was an opinion piece, and she didn’t like censuring the paper, it got in. I just loved that God gave me the courage and opportunity to write something like that and get it published.
That is awesome that you were able to do that, Lindsay! Way to be faithful, girl!
We are like you guys. Low key. Kind of excited when my man exceeded my chill expectations and brought home cream roses for me (my fav. color roses).
I love that you found out about B-man 4 years ago! Love. Love. Love. That!
~ Wendy
Such a sweet story!
We had a low-key Valentine’s Day, and it was perfect. My husband picked up Thai food on the way home. I made cookies. We got to eat and talk in peace while the boy still napped. It sounds simple, but it was wonderful!
Simple is ALWAYS wonderful, in my opinion. 🙂
Okay, that is funny. I feel like I’m at a meeting of sorts… “Hello, my name is Heather, and I don’t celebrate the little holidays… er… that aren’t really holidays.” There. I said it. My kids used to get mad because I don’t put up decorations for Halloween, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day. Oh, wait a minute. We do celebrate St. Patrick’s Day b/c it’s way fun and it’s my hubs’s birthday.
That is a way cool Valentine’s Day you celebrated with your husband! That’s the most romantic!
The only thing I do for St. Patty’s day is wear green. When we were kids, we were always in the St. Patty’s day parade. Me last name was McGivern, so ‘o course we were!
That’s so awesome.
My wife and I haven’t done anything for Valentine’s Day since about our second year going out. I think very early on we decided it meant more to us to spend time together and show our love for one another as much as possible, rather than making a big deal out of just one day of the year. We take a lot of flak from both our mums for this!
I’m so with you, Paul! Let’s act like everyday is Valentine’s Day. No need for a holiday to tell our honeys that we love them!
What a great story, Katie! A treasured memory, to be sure.
The most memorable Valentine experience I witnessed wasn’t mine. My hubby and I had gone to a Mexican food restaurant in a small town to have our Valentine’s dinner. The place was packed. We’d gotten our meals and were munching out, when all of a sudden three fire trucks rushed up the to restaurant, sirens blaring and lights flashing, along with the chief’s SUV and an ambulance. Pretty much the entire fire department. The crews jumped out and filled the place. I was certain someone must be having a heart attack.
One woman’s heart raced for sure. Why? Because a hunky firefighter dropped onto one knee in front of her, held out a small velvet jewelry box, and popped the question. Talk about the best proposal ever. Sure warmed this romance writer’s heart.
Oh my goodness, Keli, that made me swoon just a little! How romantic is that!?
Wow! What a great story she’ll have forever!
What a delightfully fun post!
I’m not going to even try to think of a Valentine’s story to share … I’m still enjoying yours.
i’m so not surprised that we share the same habits around holidays. hubs and i didn’t do v-day, either! growing up, it was always such a big deal….especially in high school, when friends would get secret valentine-grams or whatever the latest make-everyone-without-boyfriends-feel-lonely method was. but when we got married, we were both stoked that v-day lost it’s power to sting. the day devoted to love was nothing compared to year after year of love we will have together. so take THAT, v-day. (hmm…perhaps i’m still bit bitter?) 🙂
(and guess what? maddy is turning FOUR today!)
Maddie is four!!!! That is crazy! How did our little ones get so old!?
Got a kick out of your comment this morning, Jeannie. I always hated the holiday in junior high/high school too!