Valentine's Day...

You may or may not know I'm not big on holidays. I had to do one of those internet surveys once where they asked what your 'Favorite Holiday' was and I was stumped. I just don't have one. Valentine's day is especially hard for me. I was so excited our first Valentine's day together (Norman and me). I was expecting a classic Valentine's of candy and/or flowers. We were freshmen in college at the time and Norman was still at home after an extended weekend because he was sick (mono, I think). He called me on the phone and told me to ask his RA to let me into his room because my Valentine's present was there. I was so excited, I got Bill to let me in to Norm's room and there was my first real Valentine's present from my future husband - a book...

A BOOK! No hearts, no flowers, no heart shaped box of candy, no token of romance and love, a book! Hildegard Neff's biography, A Gift Horse. To say I wasn't thrilled was an understatement. From then on Norm bought me roses, red roses. After the first few times it became apparent that roses were the automatic default regardless of the situation or reason. Roses are nice, don't get me wrong. But my favorite roses are a coral colored rose named 'Sonia'. After we were married and money was tighter than tight Norm bought me red roses, again and I told him to stop. We couldn't afford them and frankly they were not my favorite. Well, Norm took that to mean forever and ever... Fast forward to many, many years later. My MIL was living with us and for Valentine's Day Norm bought us the same generic spring flower bouquet basket. I wasn't happy. I know we want men to read our minds and expect it, but I didn't take any chances. I told Norm that giving me the same flowers he gave his mother was not a good thing...

This year...after heavy hinting and clear and concise statements I got my favorite flowers - tulips. I keep telling Norm to read my blog and if he did he'd see the red tulip on my profile strip. I also have a red tulip in my craft room. So this year he finally got it right and I'm so very, very happy.