The media has taught us that Valentine's Day is the one day out of the whole year where you must break the bank to prove your undying love. And I will say, in the early days of mine and the mister's relationship, we totally followed suit. Over the past 7 V-Day's we have shared roses, jewelry, DVD's, even elaborate trips to San Antonio or the (at the time) brand spankin' new Omni Hotel in downtown Fort Worth. On our second Valentine's Day together, he gifted me with flowers AND a crock-pot. I'm talkin' husband material!
Since we've been engaged, the hype for Valentine's has seriously chilled for us. We've become much more practical in our gifts. Last year in lieu of flowers, he had an edible arrangement sent to my work. Why is that better than beautiful roses? Well for starters, I'm powerfully allergic to flowers. Not to mention they die the moment they enter my care. And chocolate dipped strawberries and apples?! Hell yes! Fruit and chocolate are two of my favorite food groups (and yes, chocolate is indeed a food group, ask any woman). My man understands me. You can't ask for more than that. This year's practical gift in lieu of flowers was an Amazon Kindle. Oh. My. Gawd. How I've longed for one of these babies!
Every time we move, which is coincidentally a lot, I have to lug around giant huge boxes of books that I just can't part with. Now I can donate all of those books and load them on to my Kindle that weighs less than a pound. I am in Heaven.
The other side of our new practical Valentine's Day...take-out. No 2 hour wait for a pricey restaraunt that jacks up their prices for "Valentine's Specials." Nope, not for this uber smart couple. We honor each other's differences in taste and get each other take out from a restaraunt we each personally don't enjoy but the other one loves. For instance, my fiance loves him a Chinese buffet. The only thing I like there are the Chinese donuts and fortune cookies. So on this very special evening, I treat him to Chinese take-out.
He in turn treats me to some good ol' Chili's. It's not that he doesn't like Chili's. He just firmly believes that in a city as big as ours there are so many options that we shouldn't waste our dining at a place we can enjoy in our home towns. I, on the other hand, could live off of their queso. And the chicken crispers, hallelujah!
You might be thinking, so he got you a Kindle and all you did was take him to get a take out plate from a Chinese buffet? Of course not! I gifted him with the very best gift a fiancee could deliver. (Seriously, mind out of the gutter now!)
Yep, a potato. Why a potato? Well here is the poem that I shamelessly stole from Miss Coyote from Weddingbee:
Why Potatoes Make a Better Love Symbol Than Roses The first reason is that roses only last a couple weeks and that’s if you leave them in water. That’s like saying “My love for you is transitory.” But a potato! Potatoes last for a long time. In fact, not only will they not rot, but they actually grow stuff even if you just leave them in the sack! That part alone makes it a good symbol. But wait, there’s more!
There are so many ways to enjoy a potato! You can even make a battery with it! That’s like saying: “I have many ways in which I show my love for you”.
Flowers really only exist to be pretty, so that’s like saying: “My love for you is based solely on your appearance.” Potatoes may be ugly, but they’re still awesome. So that’s like saying: “It doesn’t matter at all what you look like, I’ll still love you.”
For these reasons and more, we would like to see potatoes become the mainstream symbol for love and friendship.
So on Valentine’s Day, anniversaries, birthdays, and ANY other gift-giving occasion: save a flower, give a potato.
I have no clue where this idea came from but it is genius! It fits perfectly with our "Eeeen Russia, potato IS fill in the blank" inside joke. Don't ask. We're silly.
Add some Little House on the Prairie to our take-out and it was a perfect Valentine's evening. Do you have any odd Valentine's traditions?
sounds like you had a blast! no odd traditions here - yet, but will definitely start giving out more potatoes to DH! probably we could add something about the symbolism of their roundness (eternity! fertility!) as well..
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