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Laugh at Life ... Remembering Valentines Day

Valentine’s Day. A more sentimental, heart-warming and… sappy day has never existed. Many years ago, I remember a conversation I had with one of my female relatives.
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Valentine’s Day. A more sentimental, heart-warming and… sappy day has never existed.

Many years ago, I remember a conversation I had with one of my female relatives. As I sat across from her, excitedly waiting to tell of the wonderful gift I’d received, her statement still resounds with me.

“I would leave a man who gave me an appliance for Valentines Day! A gift from the love of my life must be romantic and personal!”

In our North American culture, Valentines Day is when our “romantic interests” are supposed to shower us with treats and gifts to show how deep, wide and far their love reaches.

My husband, as he knows and I’ve accepted, is not often what most would call “romantic”. Years ago, however, he got an “A” for trying. It was in the first years of our marriage that he and a brother-in-law went shopping for Valentines Day gifts. Our relative, being decidedly more romantic, took my husband to a boutique which he has only entered once and will never frequent again. Yes, he graced the dreaded…Lingerie Shop.

When opening his gift to me I suspected that he had grabbed the first thing he saw but that cannot be proven and has not been admitted.

As I lifted the first bit of material from it’s glittered gift bag that day, I fleetingly wondered if there was someone else in his life. She, perhaps, had mistakenly received my gift and I, hers. But, this was not the case.

The impossibly tiny garment tag (there wasn’t much to sew it to) screamed “Size S” and immediately a feeling of doom engulfed me.

Lets just say - I have never been and never will be anything near a “Size S”.

Nevertheless, I smiled, tentatively, as I pulled out the entire scrap of sheer material. He had chosen a pretty red teddy (bodysuit of sorts) as his gift of love for me. The tiny piece of film was supposed to fit my entire torso and had ridiculously small snaps at the crotch.

I tried not to laugh that night as I hunched over - just enough to stuff a few parts of myself into it.

I was driven to succeed for, if he had actually looked around the store and his purchase had been of a conscious nature, I felt very complimented.

That night, after a hearty laugh on both our parts, we decided that we really are more practical people. As he is overjoyed with the Canadian Tire gift card he often gets, I absolutely prefer a coffee-maker or crockpot.

So what did I say to our relative who would leave a man simply if he gifted her with an appliance she might need? Since my man had already tried his hand at a romantic gift, my reply went something like this - “Uh…I got…a blender and I love it!!”

Having said all that - I wouldn’t say “no” to jewelry!