cupid shoots, he scores

This year, for the first time, my husband outdid me on Valentine's Day.

I was shocked.

Valentine's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays (notice I say that about every holiday?) As a kid, I used to exchange cards with my parents and every year they used to give me a little box of the Valentine's Day heart candies, with the messages on them. I used to sort out all the ones I liked first, and work downward from there. I always looked forward to how each year, you swapped Valentine's Day cards with your class, and the resulting party at school. Of course, you had to give one to everyone even if you didn't want them to be your Valentine. But you would definitely notice if the cute boy in class had put an extra amount of candy in your card, or if they had signed with a little heart by their name.

As I got older, Valentine's day was a great day with my girlfriends. It almost always involved going to nice restaurants, getting fabulous cocktails, wearing red, buying something special and having a blast. It was the ultimate girls night out, and in fact, it was more fun if you were single and fabulous.

As you get older, the holiday becomes more and more about couples, but no matter what stage you are in, Valentine's Day is a big deal in the US. It's a 16 billion dollar industry globally, but in the US, 53% of women will actually break up with their boyfriends if they didn't give them gifts on Valentine's Day. This makes it not only big business, but serious business.

Since I've been out of the US, I've come to realize how this holiday is not nearly as big in other countries. In China, Valentine's day went from a non-holiday to a trendy holiday for young urbanites to celebrate in one decade. But probably my real awakening was when I met my now husband, let's just call him Mr Romance, for fun.

Mr Romance has always referred to Valentine's Day as the Hallmark holiday. I get it. I see your point. But I don't care. After years feeling like I was forcing him to celebrate, I've finally lowered my expectations. I no longer really care about it. As you know, Mr Romance isn't a huge holiday fan, so I have to focus on the important things like Christmas and Halloween first!

This year, I did the bare minimum. I bought a card, and some cool chocolate from a little place called the Chocolate Research Company and left it at that (you're shocked, I know!). And he outdid me. Not only did he buy me an actual gift (jogging headphones!), but he also got me a creative gift that involved thought - a heart-shaped velvet box filled with heart-shaped post-it coupons.


These coupons are absolutely brilliant! Not only do they include little things like 'one free washing dishes' and 'one babysitting session while you go out' to big things like 'one weekend getaway in Asia'. They are seriously good, and I plan to use them all, except for one.



Obviously, I'll never need this one.