St. Valentine's Day Masacree

So I'm not the biggest fan of Valentine's Day. I'm not sure why I should get all worked up over a Hallmark-created holiday. Maybe it has something to do with Brandon and I having a really lousy track record with the holiday.

I think the Valentine's Day right before our wedding was our only good one, and we didn't even celebrate it on the actual day. Brandon had to go to a diving meet, and I had to go to Atlanta for wedding stuff, so we had a nice dinner together on some of our new wedding china a few days early. It was a nice evening.

Our first married Valentine's Day fell the day before the marathon, my first, and all I wanted to do was have a quiet dinner and go to a movie. Instead, we somehow ended up hosting Brandon's ENTIRE family - mom, dad, brother, aunt, aunt's partner, grandfather, greatgrandmother - in our 800 square foot house. It started out as just lunch, but ended up as a dinner party. We finally fled to the movies, but a mile from the house we decided just to rent something and go back home. We got home to discover that his mom, dad and brother were all still at the house. I bring up this day quite often when I want to score a point against Brandon.

A few years later, when Ella was a baby, Brandon and I planned a nice Valentine's Dinner at home. I bought yummy food from Central Market and rented a movie. As I was serving up dinner, Brandon got an emergency call from a client, and he was the only one who could deal with it. He had to leave the house immeditately and didn't get home until much later.

Another Valentine's Day was ruined because of a spat the night before. I had made a nice dinner and was serving it up, with Brandon's help, when he announced that he had to leave to meet a business associate for for dinner. I wanted to heave plates at him, but resisted. I also bring this one up.

So now we downplay Valentine's Day. It's just better if we do that. Last night Brandon brought me flowers and dinner (that he picked up at HEB on the way home, but at least he did something), and put the girls to bed for me. And the best thing - he turned off his cell phone and computer and took the night off completely. He couldn't have given me a better gift.