My Funny Valentine

I’m generally not a big fan of Valentine’s Day. It’s one of my least-favorite holidays. I mean, it’s no Columbus Day, but it’s definitely not one that I get excited about, either.

My feelings on the matter are that I do not need some contrived holiday to inspire me to tell people I care about that I love them. I do not need a holiday to do something nice for my spouse. I also do not like that Valentine’s Day makes single people feel sad.

Those are just my personal beefs with the holiday. Plenty of other people seem to enjoy it, and I say more power to them.

My grandfather was born on Valentine’s Day. His name was Valentine. I do always think of him on this day. It must be a good time for birthdays. I have a cousin and a co-worker whose birthdays fall on Valentine’s Day as well. A close friend’s birthday is on the 15th.

As much as I find Valentine’s Day to be unexciting and a bit annoying, I must say that I did enjoy it this year. That’s because we went on our first little family trip with Jane.

We had been planning to take a trip since Christmas. Jane has always enjoyed taking baths so I thought it would be fun to take her swimming. It was. Our hotel even had a kiddie pool, which made it a lot more fun and easier with her.

I don’t think she knew what to think at first. She probably thought it was a pretty long bath, and wondered why Mama and Papa were in the bath with her! We spent quite a bit of time in the pool Sunday afternoon, and again on Monday morning. Although she was a bit reserved at first, by the end she was splashing quite nicely.

Before we headed home, we went out for lunch with a friend and went to the pet store. She saw bunnies, dogs, ferrets, snakes, hamsters, guinea pigs, and a variety of birds. Her favorite part was watching the parakeets. There were so many of them and very brightly colored. If she could have, I’m sure she would have put one of them directly into her mouth.

By the time we headed home, she was exhausted. She took a three-hour nap Monday afternoon, and went to bed at 8:30.

It may not sound like a very exciting Valentine’s Day to someone else, but it was the best one I’ve ever had. Spending the whole day with the two people I love the most makes me very, very happy.