Do you ?

[David64]

Celebrate Valentine's Day that is.

We don't.
Never have.

I guess for new couples it's fine. You're young and just starting a relationship, but for established couples, I don't think it's a big deal....or maybe it is.

Maybe it's that one day a year that you give that special person what they've wanted. A nice expensive dinner, flowers, a box of her favorite imported chocolates, some jewelry....

and there's the problem..."that one day a year"

The reason we don't buy gifts on this particular day is because we buy stuff for each other all the time.. My Wife knows I collect old SciFi books and magazines, so if she's out and sees something at a bookstore, she'll get several. Last week she was out shopping and saw .45 ACP on sale and got me 4 boxes. Other women might see a sweater and think "Oh, he'd look good in that".

Not mine. She knows the way to my heart involves something that goes bang. { get your mind outta the gutter that's not what I meant }

Not long a go, I got her a new set of nose studs. Yes, my Wife has a nose piercing. If you ever met her, you'd see a tiny glimmer on her nose. So small you'd think it was glitter from makeup, but it's ruby, sapphire or emerald chip. She doesn't like diamonds { thank you Jesus }

I think that's my problem with a lot of holidays. There just so commercialized, it's not about Love or religion, it's about how much they can guilt trip you into spending. Take Easter for example. Why are we celebrating the Resurrection with a rabbit that lays chocolate eggs ? 
...and just who in the hell came up with THAT idea ?

smh

[andy06shake]

Celebrate Valentine's Day that is.

We don't.
Never have.

I guess for new couples it's fine. You're young and just starting a relationship, but for established couples, I don't think it's a big deal....or maybe it is.

Maybe it's that one day a year that you give that special person what they've wanted. A nice expensive dinner, flowers, a box of her favorite imported chocolates, some jewelry....

and there's the problem..."that one day a year"

The reason we don't buy gifts on this particular day is because we buy stuff for each other all the time.. My Wife knows I collect old SciFi books and magazines, so if she's out and sees something at a bookstore, she'll get several. Last week she was out shopping and saw .45 ACP on sale and got me 4 boxes. Other women might see a sweater and think "Oh, he'd look good in that".

Not mine. She knows the way to my heart involves something that goes bang. { get your mind outta the gutter that's not what I meant }

Not long a go, I got her a new set of nose studs. Yes, my Wife has a nose piercing. If you ever met her, you'd see a tiny glimmer on her nose. So small you'd think it was glitter from makeup, but it's ruby, sapphire or emerald chip. She doesn't like diamonds { thank you Jesus }

I think that's my problem with a lot of holidays. There just so commercialized, it's not about Love or religion, it's about how much they can guilt trip you into spending. Take Easter for example. Why are we celebrating the Resurrection with a rabbit that lays chocolate eggs ? 
...and just who in the hell came up with THAT idea ?

smh

I mean, we will send each other the likes of a FB message.

But 24 years into a relationship.

I don't think me or the Mrs really need cards and teddy bears to tell or show one another love.

And it's not like the made-up holiday in question has much to do with the 3rd-century martyr of the same name.

[argentus]

Yes, we celebrate Valentine's Day, but not in the traditional manner.   I mean, we've been together for 40 years.   It's been a long time since the day involved flowers or cards.   In many ways, every day is a celebration.

We usually do something restful and perhaps a little indulgent.   No work today, just pizza, adult beverages and a movie day!   NO [expletive] news today.  *spit*

[FlyersFan]

Married 35 years.   Known each other 55 years.
Did St Valentines Day when we first went out
and were first married.
But cards and teddy bears and chocolate seem 
ridiculous at this point.
It's for kids.
We don't do St Valentines Day.   
Everyday is St. Valentines Day for us.
We are soul mates.

[Quantum12]

3 years ago on Feb, 14th I had open heart surgery. I ended up waiting in the ICU on a Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Machine for a new heart. At 50 years old my heart failed. I woke up with machine warming my blood and keeping me alive. 

I told off the Doctor when I work up. I said I am leaving. He was laughing and told me good luck.

So I celebrate everyday including V day!

[BeTheGoddess]

We love Hawaii.
 

On 14 February 1779 British explorer Captain James Cook was killed as he attempted to kidnap Kalaniʻōpuʻu, the ruling chief (aliʻi nui) of the island of Hawaii, and hold him hostage for the return of a cutter which Hawaiians had stolen. As Cook and his men attempted to take the chief to his ship, they were confronted by a crowd of Hawaiians at Kealakekua Bay seeking to prevent Kalaniʻōpuʻu leaving. In the ensuing confrontation, Cook, four British marines and 17 Hawaiians were killed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_James_Cook

[quintessentone]

Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't, sometimes we treat any old day as a day to celebrate sharing our lives together for the last 47 years.

Yesterday, I bought us top of the line chocolates to enjoy for that extra dopamine rush, plus a chocolate cake.

But I did buy my daughter a Valentine's gift, socks, she wanted socks, which I doubt her fiance would have bought for her. lol

Oh I forgot, with the money saved from not buying lavish gifts for each other for most holidays, I donate to worthy causes. Yesterday's gifts were to the food bank and to a new farm animal sanctuary that just opened up around my area.

[rickymouse]

Years ago we used to go out and eat for valentines days.  I used to go buy her some roses too, but one time she was upset because I bought a dozen roses that were already opening at a discount instead of one rose that was not opened from a flower shop where I knew the owners....a dozen for the price of one rose that most people get for their loved one.  She liked the rose petals to put into a thing that she had to give the aromas, she had two of those.  I figured she would like having enough rose petals to fill both of them, and the roses were pretty close to fully opening, they were very pretty.  I guess that was taboo, she complained about it and was dissatisfied....that was about thirty years ago.

So, if fixed the issue, I never bought her any flowers since.....and guess what....she never complained after that.

We still went out to the restaurant for about ten years after that, but we figured out about twenty years ago...after I spent a lot of time learning to cook different things, that I could make better quality foods than we could get in any restaurant at home.....so we started doing that, I cooked the valantines supper, which cost a third of going out and eat and not many restaurants around here could make comparable food.  Also, sometimes she made her Lasagna that she has an old recipe for...best I ever had in my life, made with the best ingredients, but a little costly when you consider the good ingredients including grass fed organic beef and organic Muir glen tomatoes.  I actually am metabolically intolerant to tomatoes but it is worth suffering when I eat her lasagna.

A steak dinner grilled at home is way better when it is from the grass fed cows we buy a half head of...better than any restaurant serves around here.  I do still need to learn how to make a great ceaser salad though, and those recipes you cannot get from a great Italian recipe unless you know someone who worked there making them and the dressing.  The bottled dressing is not the same as a few Italian restaurants here owned by some Italians who use their family recipes.....their lasagna is good too, but I don;t order it because it is not worth the hives.  I did learn from my nephew how they make their garlic bread though, he worked there for six months and often made the garlic bread ....it is fried in a butter sauce.  Greasy and yummy.

WE just make a nice meal usually for valentines day now.  We decided this year we would go out for a fish fry yesterday instead of today for our meal, once in a while it is nice to have a deep fried whitefish dinner instead of a baked whitefish dinner or other fish we make at home.  So that cafat n be perceived as a valentines dinner on friday the thirteenth.  Today it is a homemade chef salad at home.   

Fat tuesday is coming up, we will need some of those donut things that start with a P for that day.  That holiday has been observed yet.  We also like to stock up our Cod in the freezer during Lent every year, they have good sales and I own a vacuum packer, so buying the frozen filets or loins of cod and pollock is a tradition, they last a year in the freezer.  Rogjt mpw we still have whitefish filets, wild caught salmon filets, and farmed columbion river steelhead filets in the freezer, a and two packages of pollock to make KalaMojakka out of..  Cod has been real high this last year, hopefully we will have a good sale.  We will probably buy ten pounds of loins if they do...for stock.

Valentines day is just a day created by people who want to sell you things you don't really need.  Consumerism at it's finest.  I know lots of business owners personally and I know they need sales, so I will not condemn this, they supply jobs to people and that is important too.  I am not fond of buying things online, I would rather support local businesses that supply workers incomes locally.  WE buy very little online and what we do buy is because nobody sells them here because not many busihnesses sell pound packages of spices or the vitamins and special supplements I get to control my form of epilepsy.

So we spend about two hundred a year buying stuff not locally provided, from places that do not support local workers.

WE try to spread our money around to local businesses, but most people buy on line these days, and that hurts the local economy...but I still am not going to buy flowers for the wife anymore.

We also just give money for Christmas and birthday presents, unless we buy a half head of beef, but we haven't been able to get a whole half head the last two years from our farmer, just about a hundred pounds of beef so we have not given beef for Christmas for two years, so money works fine.  By buying a local beef, the cost provides labor for the farmer and for the slaughter house in the U.P., These are our people

[BeyondKnowledge]

No, I do not believe in animal sacrifice.

Look it up if you don't understand this answer.

[Waterglass]

Celebrate Valentine's Day that is.

We don't.
Never have.

I guess for new couples it's fine. You're young and just starting a relationship, but for established couples, I don't think it's a big deal....or maybe it is.

Maybe it's that one day a year that you give that special person what they've wanted. A nice expensive dinner, flowers, a box of her favorite imported chocolates, some jewelry....

and there's the problem..."that one day a year"

The reason we don't buy gifts on this particular day is because we buy stuff for each other all the time.. My Wife knows I collect old SciFi books and magazines, so if she's out and sees something at a bookstore, she'll get several. Last week she was out shopping and saw .45 ACP on sale and got me 4 boxes. Other women might see a sweater and think "Oh, he'd look good in that".

Not mine. She knows the way to my heart involves something that goes bang. { get your mind outta the gutter that's not what I meant }

Not long a go, I got her a new set of nose studs. Yes, my Wife has a nose piercing. If you ever met her, you'd see a tiny glimmer on her nose. So small you'd think it was glitter from makeup, but it's ruby, sapphire or emerald chip. She doesn't like diamonds { thank you Jesus }

I think that's my problem with a lot of holidays. There just so commercialized, it's not about Love or religion, it's about how much they can guilt trip you into spending. Take Easter for example. Why are we celebrating the Resurrection with a rabbit that lays chocolate eggs ? 
...and just who in the hell came up with THAT idea ?

smh

So I buy fresh and nice flowers for just under $20, a cute card usually relating to cats and a couple bottles of Champagne. I also make her favorite meal, pizza. I buy a dough ball, use Galbani® Fresh Mozzarella and my sauce is a 300 year old recipe from the Old Country. Top it with fresh Mushrooms. I usually cook it on the grill for 11 minutes @ 650 degrees.