February 17th, 2026

Valentine's Day just happened!  And on the weekend too!  How nice :)

In our typical low key fashion, Tim and I had a lovely quiet Valentine's Day.  We've celebrated lots of different ways over the years but one thing has always stayed the same.  It is, by now, a long standing tradition of exchanging cards.  (Which we do for pretty much every occasion.)  From the very beginning,  since before we were married, without even discussing it ahead of time, we each gave the other two cards, one funny, one serious.  It just cracked us up that we both did the exact same thing . What are the odds?  

As the years have gone by,     we have continued to exchange cards, always at the end of the day, always with no distractions (TV off or at least muted) always together, always reading each card with comments and laughter, appreciation and kisses. (awwwwww) The cards are always displayed for a few weeks on the tabletop afterwards. The only thing that has changed is some times instead of just two cards, every once in awhile it's 3.  

Why 3?  Well one card nowadays is usually from the kittyboys.  The cats, strangely,  are not welcome in stores to choose their own cards so we have to do it for them.  Besides they cannot drive and have no pockets for wallets. Brysco and Wyatt trust our judgement, implicitly.   So 3 cards each, right?  If you count the cards on the table above, it turned out to be more than 3 each because, according to Tim,  Hallmark was doing a BOGO on cards and he wasn't going to waste a perfectly good BOGO! Gotta do the extra card now too.  4 cards !!!  Frugal and standard logic don't always go together in this family.  Sooo That's 4 to me from Tim, Brysco and Wyatt.  And two to Tim from the kittyboys and me because I am a slacker, didn't notice the sale and am a cheapskate.

(I may have only done two cards to Tim compared to his 4 to me BUT I made him a lovely batch of brownies and that might help to even it out a bit?)

If you are counting, even with the explanation, it still doesn't work out right, does it?  Well that adorable little puppy card came to me from an old friend back in Colorado.   Now the numbers work even though it's a little crazy.  

You might also notice that two cards are identical.  Yup. We did it again. It has happened so often now that it's almost expected.  We gave each other the same card..................again!  Cue even more laughter!  Clearly we are two people who were meant to be together! We can shop in completely different stores on different days, at different times of day and still end up giving each other the same card!  LOLOL  We are ridiculous.

So that's kind of how we spent our Valentine's Day, together.  We ran errands and did chores for most of the day, I made a very nice meal for dinner, we did our annual card exchange, laughed a lot, smooched a bit and enjoyed a really nice brownie (or two). It was a perfect day.  oh   Tim also contributed a short stack of boxes of Whoppers and Milk Duds, perfect for snuggling up to watch a movie together. Yum~

I know that Valentine's Day is a "made-up" holiday (aren't they all ultimately) and people feel a  lot of pressure to properly express to their life partner how much they care, how important the other person is to them and the extent of their love !   Commercials and movies and "reality TV" make it feel so very serious, very emotionally precarious, teetering your relationship on the brink balanced on this one day of the year! (not to say expensive!)

  I cannot say that either Tim or I feel pressure leading up to Valentine's day.  We both know how we feel and how the other one feels but we like that it is a sweet day  where we make it a point to express how we feel,  tangibly.  With something you can hold in your hands, as well as your heart.  We've done it bigger with flowers, and heart shaped boxes of chocolate and nice dinners out, we've done it smaller with phone calls and delayed celebration but we've always done it with cards. And we've often done it with duplicate cards.  Because we are weird.

Some traditions are a little stranger than other's I suppose but as long as we are good with it, that's all that really matters.

Hope your Valentine's Day was exactly what you wished it to be.