the valentine's day curse

Growing up, I always thought Valentine's day was a great holiday. I loved making my Valentine's box in elementary school (some of which won awards!). Even after I became boy-crazy, I never stressed about it the way some girls do. I just thought it was a cute holiday and a good excuse to eat pink candy! However, since we've been married, I have come to realize that Valentine's Day is cursed. Let me give a recap of each of our Valentine's Days to illustrate:

1) The first Valentine's Day we had together was six days after we got engaged. So, we had just had a very romantic evening, and Bart had to work till after 9 anyway. So, he came over to my apartment at about 9:30, I had baked a heart-shaped pizza. We ate, we laughed, I'm sure we kissed, and he was home by 11:00. I'm not complaining, this was the best Valentine's Day we've had!

2) The next year was our first Valentine's Day married. And for our date, Bart took me to the student health center for a strep test, because I was sick, sick, sick. I was so disappointed.

3) The next year we went out to eat the weekend before Valentine's Day, so the actual day, was totally unmemorable. I know Bart met me at work on my lunch break and we went to Subway. Other than that, I can't remember anything. Which, given our luck means it was a better than average Valentine's Day.

4) The next year we had six week old twins. This means that we were both totally sleep deprived, cranky, etc. There was no way we could go out, so we had planned to pick up some food from a restaurant and eat at home. We spent nearly an hour arguing about where we wanted food from. When we finally decided, I went to pick it up and Bart called several times to ask what was taking so long, to please hurry because both the babies were hungry and there was nothing he could do for them. The rest of the night was spent holding crying babies, trying to get them to sleep, eating cold take-out with one hand and crawling into bed completely exhausted when we finally got babies to sleep.

5) The next year, Bart's mom was visiting us in Florida, so we were able to go out to eat with a group of friends. We went to one of those Japanese restaurants where they cook your meal in front of you. We waited an hour for a table, and then, 45 minutes after we sat down, they still hadn't taken our drink order, much less our food order, and some of the couples we were with were worried they wouldn't be able to get their food before they had to leave to get their babysitters home. So, we all walked out and ate at a fast-food place across the street. When we got home, I remember staying up late talking to Bart's mom, while Bart went to bed. Which, I'm sure was lots of fun for me, just not very Valentine's dayish. So, this wasn't a terrible Valentine's day, just didn't go how we wanted, and not terribly romantic.

6) Last year I had planned a romantic candle-lit dinner for two. I had bought some fun decorations and glittery heart plates. Both of which I got out for the first time this year, unused. We both had bronchitis (and I had pneumonia too) on Valentine's Day. We watched a movie in bed, but we were both too weak to even keep our heads up to see most of the movie. We had planned on celebrating later, but by the time we both got feeling better, it was way past Valentine's Day, and we gave up. Worst Valentine's Day ever!

So this year, I'm not sure if I should try to plan something special, get Bart a nice gift, and try to finally have a good Valentine's Day, or if I should pretend there is no such thing so I'm not disappointed. Or worse yet, if I plan to celebrate, maybe something worse than bronchitis and pneumonia will happen.

Wish us luck!