What Valentine's Day Means To Me.

So I decided to do a little bit of an "early spring cleaning" and grabbed my little storage box where I store all my memorabilia such as cards from every occasion, playbills, concert tickets, photos, etc. As I was looking through this box I stumbled upon a ton of valentine cards that Jon gave me. I remember when he used to give me a card and send me flowers on Valentines day when I used to work as well as when I decided to be a stay at home mom. We always exchanged valentine gifts for the first few years of our married life, but as the kids got older life and age crept up on us we don't really do the gift exchange anymore. Since my kids have grown, especially my girls I've realized that even though cards, flowers, diamonds, and candy are dandy and all...valentines day doesn't have to be all about that. 

To me, valentines day is about time, and uttering the words "I love you" every chance you get as opposed to expressing it with gifts. 

Valentines day is like Christmas where we like to exchange gifts, and give to others but in all honesty, Jon and I don't gift ourselves with worldly things. What we gift to each other is time, communication, compassion, and understanding. 

We gift each other with love letters, laughter, and chatter. A simple drive to the beach to listen to crashing waves. A day trip to the city where we can walk for hours, and stare at good architecture, and street art while admiring the lights of the city skyline! An errand to Costco or Sonic Drive-in where we get his and her cherry limeades, and Nathan's hot dogs. 

I love the way simplicity feels with Jon when it comes to special holidays like this. Gifts never need to be luxurious for us. It's nice, but we just don't desire those things anymore. Give me a good slice of pizza, a good burger, and a shake shack shake with some chocolate covered strawberries on the side, and I am good to go!

I hope this Valentines' Day will be extra special and simple with the one you love, and one to always be remembered!