Happy Valentine’s Day, ladies! 
In honor of today, here are some points of interest I didn’t know regarding V-Day, gleaned from the Wikipedia’s article on Valentine’s Day.
According to the Greeting Card Association, 25% of all holiday cards sent are Valentines, making it the second largest card-sending occasion after Christmas. Women buy more than 85% of Valentines purchased.
The “St. Valentines” who were originally honored on February 14 are Valentine of Rome, who was a priest in Rome and was martyred in AD 269, and Valentine of Terni, who was bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) and was killed sometime in the early 200s.
These guys had no connection with romantic love, which is what we nowadays celebrate on Valentine’s Day. The first recorded association of romantic love and Valentine’s Day was in a poem written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 1300s.
My husband and I don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day. Our engagement anniversary is February 16, so we choose to celebrate that instead. Actually, we don’t have “romantic” plans for that day, either. Hmm. Anyway, the real reason we don’t make a big deal on Valentine’s Day is because we think it’s a little forced. We’d like to think we show love to each other throughout the year, so no need to put pressure on one day, you know? How about you? Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day? What are some ways in which you’ve enjoyed celebrating it over the years?
If you walk around the stores I’m sure you see Valentine’s Day stuff EVERYWHERE! Personally I think Valentine’s Day is over rated. There’s a lot of pressure to get the right gift, or the right card, go to the right restaurant. There’s a lot of pressure to make that day and night super romantic.
My husband and I decided early on in our marriage that the hype would not cause us to feel the pressure. Of course this was decided after our first Valentine’s Day as a married couple when we went to a really nice restaurant. What a shock it was when we got there! We had no idea the restaurant would hike up the prices and have only a fixed menu! We enjoyed our dinner, didn’t enjoy the price, and decided right then and there that we would do our own thing!
Sometimes we celebrate Valentines Day the day before or the day after.
Sometimes we’ll go to a regular restaurant really early, like around 5 pm or 5:30pm before the crowdes get there.
But the most memorable Valentine’s Day we had was when we ordered Chinese food for dinner. That year it was a nice warm evening here in Orlando. I set up that back yard patio furniture, put a nice table clothe on the table. I got out our nice china, set up candles and pretty much set the table so it looked like it belonged in a nice restaurant.
It was very romantic, inexpensive, creative and fun. We had a great time. No waiting in lines, no high prices.
Last year we went wine tasting at Old Vines Wines in Waterford Lakes. Next door they have a small restaurant where we ordered fondue with a very nice wine and it was still affordable.
Do any of you have different ideas for Valentine’s Day?
I had these at Marianne’s house recently, and we all told her we felt like we were eating from a Russell Stover box of candies - they were delicious!! Great job, Marianne. And a huge congratulations on your new baby girl, Isabel Jane - born February 11th.
Hazelnut Buttercreams from Marianne Whitehill
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup finely chopped hazelnuts
1 tsp almond extract
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 pound chocolate almond bark
melted white chocolate (optional)
Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with electric mixer until smooth. Beat in hazelnuts and extract. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar. Cover, and chill for 2 hours.
Shape dough into 1/2″ balls. Place on wax paper-lined baking sheets. Freeze for 2 hours (or until firm.)
Melt chocolate almond bark according to package directions. Dip frozen hazelnut buttercreams into melted chocolate using toothpicks or 2 forks. Place on wax paper-lined baking sheets. Drizzle with melted white chocolate if desired.
In Church a couple of weeks ago, Mike had a great sermon on the Samaritan woman at the well. He showed us how Jesus offered her living water where she will never thirst again. I loved at the end where he encouraged us to share the water with everyone else that is thirsty! This especially stood out to me because that is what I have been immersed in for the past month and will be the rest of this month.
As you may know, Jason and I work with Priority Associates. And I have been, along with a few other ladies, organizing an outreach event for the women of Orlando called “Girls’ Night Out”. So, during Mike’s sermon I immediately thought about how us women of the church could take advantage of the Girls’ Night to do that very thing - share water with other women of Orlando!
This is going to be a great evening of massage treatments, facials, financial planning tips, meal planning, chocolate and more! Amanda Ober from WESH2 news is going to be speaking for us on “Finding Balance in Life”. The date is February 29th and it’s from 7:00-9:00 pm at the City Arts Factory.
Now it should be noted that this is a great opportunity to invite your thirsty friends, not just a place for us to gather amongst our already well-dranked selves. Ha - is that even a phrase! Anyway, you get the point. So, if you would like a flier to e-mail to your friends or even print-off to hand them, then please comment here and I will e-mail it to you.
Hope to see you and your thirsty friends there!
Categories
