I Choo-Choo-Choose You!

Ah, St. Valentine's Day...

I've been remembering back to grade school when my class was required to make heart-shaped construction paper pockets to hang on the front of our desks in anticipation of getting those cheap, tiny Valentine cards that usually had some sort of superhero theme. Who can forget Wonder Woman's You've Lassoed My Heart, or Spiderman hoping that my Valentine's Day is Super Amazing. I never understood this school tradition. It seemed to be yet another way to keep Hallmark in business, the popular kids popular, and the losers, well, losers.

Once in high school, Valentine's Day had a bit of a different meaning. It still kept the popular kids popular, and the rest of us, well, you get the point. But now, love and the possibility to fall in love and have a Valentine became a reality. My school participated in passing out Val-O-Grams: a carnation with a hand-written note from your sweetheart. I remember those days (well, those four days since I was only in high school for four years) with anxious anticipation hoping beyond hope I'd get one. I lucked out two of the four years, if I'm remembering correctly. (I don't want to insult my ex's by not remembering correctly, but I'm finding that high school has become an extremely distant memory that has faded pretty quickly. I mean, it was 17 years ago, so forgive me.) So for two of the four years I didn't feel like a total loser not getting a Val-O-Gram during morning homeroom.

Now that I'm married, Valentine's Day has morphed, yet again, into something a bit different. I do find it strange that we pick only a couple days a year to overtly celebrate the love we feel towards our spouse (i.e. Valentines, Anniversaries, Birthdays), and why we need to overtly celebrate with trinkets and chocolate and flowers, I don't understand. Since I do love and cherish my husband all the days of the year, this would get a bit expensive, so maybe narrowing it down to just a couple times is more cost effective. And in this economy, I'm all about the saving of money.

On this Valentine's Day, I felt the need to show NukeBoy how much I care for him by making heart-shaped food.

I started the day with heart-shaped pancakes and toast, and completed the day with heart-shaped brownies sprinkled with heart-shaped candies.

He, in turn, got me a delicious box of handmade chocolates from our local chocolatier, and a much needed massage at the spa.

My box of chocolates even contained some chocolate Budhas. What better way to achieve total zen than by eating a chocolate Budha.

You must lick his belly before consumption to get the full zenness out of the experience.

So, for a holiday that has no connection to anything romantic (since the actual two St. Valentine's were martyrs of the Catholic church and even the church doesn't know why they were martyred) it was still Super Amazing. I'm so glad I Lassoed me a wonderful husband so for the next forty years I can prove to the world that I'm not an unattached loser incapable of getting my own love match.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yankee Doodle Dandy,

-TYG