I love Valentine’s Day and I judge anyone, pretty harshly, who says they don’t. God we GET it- no one likes Hallmark or diamond commercials or spending $129 on a dozen roses. Where is your imagination though- who dictates that you have to celebrate it the way the commercials say?! You can totally go your own way with it, people.

A day to celebrate love, romance, and passion is the point- you don’t have to swallow the standard tropes of the holiday whole like some kind of constrictor with a mouth full of rat! Nibble and pick and choose what parts to eat! Leave the unappetizing tail and paws if you prefer!

On Valentine’s Day the husband and I write love letters to each other and have a nice meal. There are usually flowers of some kind and chocolate with champagne or a nice bottle of wine. We also call this “Friday” ’round these here parts, but the holiday is an opportunity to take it to 11 on celebrating love and our marriage- the thing that has brought me the most happiness in my life-so it is right up my alley. This day has gifts too, so plus right there.

In fact, this year I’ve gotten really into the iconography/symbolism of hearts too, both around the house and some accessories, as a way to celebrate even more- so you see why I’d be a fan of Valentine’s and all. I am considering starting a “heart wall,” similar to the “cross walls” you see so frequently in people’s houses- at least in Texas you do, is that a thing elsewhere, I wonder? But I’m also anti-clutter so we’ll see if it expands too far past the ones I have currently.

And I personally don’t even mind the red and pink and purple of the holiday- though I have many a color of roses that I like more than red roses. Like pink. And purple!

Even the kids get into it. My husband brought them a flower and some candy each and the 10 year old origami-master made these to decorate the house:

My gift to him was a pair of pants (they’re awesome pants though- Kuhl for life!) as well as a Roman coin from Constantine II’s reign dated from 331-364 A.D. The husband has the idea, in the future, to try to see who can spend the least on the most meaningful gift- a concept I really like and we’ll put into practice maybe for the next one. But considering the 1600+ year old coin only cost $7 and then $7 shipping from Europe (sure it took more than a month- but it was cheap!) I wish I had saved that idea for the upcoming gift competition.

We went out to an early dinner (unusual, we often cook at home so as to not deal with crowds on the day itself), had a romantic stroll through HEB for breakfast stuff for the next day, and then were home by 7:50pm. Had my first margarita in twenty years as well, and it was surprisingly drinkable. Turns out two decades is the length of time it takes to erase the memory of puking them up in a drive through lane at Whataburger that one time in college.

We’re making a bit of a weekend about it though, so we’re off to Austin for a night out with some dinner and honky tonk dancing and, I am assuming, a romantic stroll through an Austin garden center on Sunday morning. Then we’ll head back home and cook our own fancy meal (scallops, we’re thinking- though steak is always an option) for Sunday night. And we’ll drink the bottle of champagne we didn’t quite get to on Friday. (See the reference to Valentine’s margaritas, one paragraph back.)

Speaking of homegrown things- there is NOTHING that makes me want to quit my job and just homestead like cutting my own flowers or harvesting my own veggies from the backyard. And winter veggies are some of my favorite! Heck yeah, no spider mites!

I turned that into this in all of 5 minutes from harvest to table:

I swear to god nothing makes me want to slaughter a hog and have a smoke shed and be about a mile away from the nearest neighbors who are out of view over some rolling hills and have chickens and a homebuilt wooden sauna more than harvesting my own kale.

We all have dreams.

(Did I mention about the wheat that is coming in nicely in the backyard right now? Live your dreams too, wherever you are.)