I've decided one of the great advantages of being married is having a week filled with lovely little scenes like this, the tableau that greeted me when I came home from church on Sunday. Living with my love, having these moments that seem just perfect on a random day of the week, means I feel perfectly free to tell him that the last thing I want to do for Valentine's Day is exchange gifts when we're still feeling the effects of the extrvagance of Christmas or sit in the midst of a crowd at a restaraunt. Tonight I plan to come home from work and make shrimp scampi over spinach, and then to spend the evening hanging out together on the couch. And I have no concern that there will be anything missing.
Valentine's wasn't always such a low key affair for us. The first several years we were dating, we were in law school. Preparation for exams began at Halloween and typically ended a day (two if you were lucky) before Christmas, when we each flew home to spend a precious week or two with our families. So, we didn't celebrate Christmas together and most years didn't even bother to exchange gifts. Instead, we made Valentine's our big celebration with flowers hand-delivered to my work, gifts exchanged after class and dinner out. It was lovely. But, I like this better.
Last year, our first Valentine's Day as a married couple worked out pretty well, too. Alex showed up at my office in the early afternoon, and I came back from a meeting to find him waiting for me. With my bosses blessing, he 'swept me away' for an afternoon together. We went out for a late, lazy lunch, when the restaraunt was all but empty and then made it home to watch movies together before the crowds descended. Our schedules won't allow for that this year, but its the same idea. No worries about how Valentine's is 'supposed to be' and taking complete pleasure in just being together... without the crowds.
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