Why I don't celebrate Valentine's Day

To be completely honest, I wasn't sure I should even write this post. I mean, a romance writer deciding to talk about why she doesn't celebrate Valentine's Day? Isn't that...like...sacrilegious or something?

So I'll set the record straight...

I LOVE romance!

There's nothing in the world I value more than a story of how two people are able to compromise, trust each other, and take the most extreme risk in the world. That's what falling in love is, after all. 

It's a risk.

A daintily raised middle finger to the darkness of the universe, a promise that it doesn't matter what the world throws at you, you have chosen this person to share all the joys and troubles with.

You choose to live for that person when it's usually far easier to disassociate yourself and no longer care who you hurt.

Maybe that's why I can't wrap my head around the magic of Valentine's Day. It's a holiday where you're obligated to remind a person that you love them.

Seriously?!?

Why can't we do that every day of the year?

I realize that I've been very fortunate in terms of romance. I'm married to my best friend and, almost ten years later, we're that annoying couple everyone else hates. If we end a phone conversation without saying, "I love you," we'll call back just to remind the other of that. Because apparently we didn't know that already.

He lets me put my freezing cold fingers under his shirt so I can warm them up. Trust me, up here in Alaska when it's in the negatives, that's a lovely present.

I do the dishes for him when I remember (dishes are his chore, not mine...yeah, I know he's a keeper).

But I have not gone a single day without feeling like he loves, cherishes, and protects me. Even when we've been arguing, I know we've been arguing and furious at each other because we care about the other person too damn much to let them be stupid.

So we don't really celebrate Valentine's Day. As he just said as he read my obligatory Valentine's Day card (I found with hedgepigs all over it!!!) and I apologized for the lack of romantic poetry written inside, "Yeah, we're just not romantic like that."

And I don't regret that at all. I get every other day of the year with him showing in the big and little ways how much he loves me. He doesn't have to showboat.

But, for all of you who adore the holiday, I truly, sincerely wish you the best and hope my little rant hasn't put you off your celebrations. Just know that I'll be spending the evening in the most romantic way possible...curled up near a roaring fire with my husband...napping.

(No, that's not a lie. We're both getting over the flu and we both agreed that the sexiest way to celebrate would be to curl up together and sleep. Not sleep sleep, but just straight, Nyquil commercial sleep.) 

Happy Valentine's Day!