Let Me Call You Sweetheart ....

What a great idea - lets talk about Valentine's Day.
Do you do anything special for Valentine's Day? Do you have any plans? Is this your first Valentine's Day together or are you an "old timer" like me?

Young love is so special. I get to "live" this specialness again with my daughter and her BF. Now it is a little different for them this year - because he is a Marine, who is stationed right now, in California. His new orders don't come through until late April, so right now they are only about 3,000 miles apart. They talk every day (gotta love computer networks) before he goes to "work" and she goes to bed, and then again when she gets up in the morning for either classes or work and he gets ready to sleep. And lets not forget the ever present phone for text messages, thank God for unlimited text messaging - or I'd be broke.

Seems they have decided that Valentine's Day has to be special with special yet tangible proof of their new love. She has a box of things to send to him already, we went shopping together for things about 18 days ago. She didn't want to send it too soon (so that it taunted him to open the box early) but I think she is also open to picking up more things to put in the box. He had already sent a box for her at the end of January, to be on the safe side. Of course Mom had to confiscate it since he specifically said not to open until Valentine's Day. He put a note on it saying that if she opened it early his heart would explode because it was exposed to the air for too long....can't wait to see what this one means. Now I find out he has more things coming that should be here the Friday before Valentine's Day. Kids .... it's so cute seeing this (I think), ask me again in a few weeks.

But seeing this new found love, I started to think about things you can do to make the day special. Things that don't cost an arm and a leg and are "different" than the day to day. Last year, about a week or so before Valentine's Day, there were blogs all over that were asking for things to do that didn't cost alot of money - since money was tight. Well I don't know about you but I think money is still tight and may be for at least the rest of the year.

More and more people are bringing lunches to work - how about a special "note" tucked into a lunch? Or make a heart shaped cookie, with some special phrase, and tuck that into his (or her) lunch. A heart shaped doily on top (and bottom) of their sandwich, just feels special.

How about a special date night - where one doesn't leave the house?
Make a picnic dinner in the living room.

Have a fireplace? Put your blanket on the floor in front of the fireplace and enjoy dinner there. Just a change of location can make the every day meal feel special and can lead to totally different conversations.

Cut some stars out of aluminum foil and tack them onto the ceiling and walls. After dinner, if not before, turn off the lights and when the fire crackles, and the firelight catches the stars, it will be like they are twinkling just for the two of you. No fireplace ...... CANDLES - again something that is probably out of the ordinary, and everyone should have at least a few candles on hand.

So you see - you don't need to spend alot of money to make the day special, you just have to use your imagination.

Tell me what you think you will do to make this Valentine's Day different? Maybe you can inspire others, as well as yourself, to make this Valentine's Day - THE day to remember. Or maybe you will decide that you had so much fun coming up with a new way to celebrate, you will make this THE way to celebrate EVERY year with your special someone. Think of the great memories you will have.

Now you need to go check out the next blogger with her thoughts on Valentine's Day at www.thefrugalhousewife.com I'm sure she has some wonderful thoughts to keep us going until the actual day!