Valentine's Day is a bit of a non-event in our house, and in Finland in general. Unlike the rest of the world that celebrates this made up holiday of love, in Finland it is considered "Friendship Day" and doesn't focus on love at all. Love is far too serious in Finland.
Which reminds me of a story.
Over twenty years ago and only having been in the country for a few weeks or so, I was at a café collecting my coffee and for some reason I said "Thanks love" to the waitress, as I might have from time to time in Australia. I probably picked this up from my Grandad, as for him everyone was either "love" or a "silly bugger". Anyway, the girl who was probably only a couple years younger than me in her early twenties, blushed like I had just proposed to her and she was considering saying yes.
I found out later that "love" is not often used between people here.
Especially people who love each other.'
"I said I loved you once. If anything changes, I'll let you know."
But, since in our house Valentine's Day is a non-event, I decided to make it a bit of an event conspiracy with Smallsteps as my conspirator. When we were in the city together the other day, I picked up a silver necklace that I know that my wife wanted from a Finnish brand that she likes. Actually, two Finnish brands that she likes, as it is a collaborative piece between Marimekko and Kalevala Jewellery. Once we got home, Smallsteps made a lovely card with hearts, a mouse, and a dachshund, to match the wrapping colours.
However, we couldn't just give it to her without a little bit of a ruse, so when Smallsteps had made a card at school for her mother also, we decided to bait her with a tiny surprise. So after everyone went to bed, I got some nice looseleaf tea into an infuser, with a Marimekko cup and some honey, ready for her to use in the morning, as she gets up first and sits with a tea to start the day.
My wife thought this was an awesome start to the day.
My wife was sitting next to Smallsteps' bed drinking her tea and Smallsteps excused herself to go to the bathroom, and then came sneaking to wake me up. She was so excited - it was awesome. So then, we both went in, and Smallsteps gave her the bag with a nicely wrapped box in it, and a card.
Now my wife was confused.
But when she opened the box and saw the necklace, she was happy, and also embarrassed, because she said, "I didn't get you anything at all".
That is the point.
I don't like giving presents on these "special" days, because they are expected. Instead, I give people things randomly, because then it is actually a surprise. But, because Valentine's Day has been a non-event in our household for so long, it was actually a surprise for my wife to get something, and it is something that she wanted and will wear and keep for a long time.
And it feels good to give people something they actually want.
She might not get anything for her birthday though.
And, when my conspirator got home from school, I decided to give her a bit of a Valentine's surprise snack too, and made a version for her first ever banana split - with half a banana, a sliver of leftover mudcake from when we had guests the other day, and a small piece of ice cream. She was dubious that chocolate and banana would go together, which goes to show how inexperienced her sweet tooth is, but loved it of course.
I made her an omelette for a better meal later.
And then, to enter into the weekend proper, as I was heading back from the gym, the neighbour gave me a call to come over for a coffee and a whiskey. I am not a big whiskey drinker, but this one was pretty good on my taste buds at least. So yeah, it was not a bad start to the weekend at all.
If I was wealthy, I don't think my life would change that much day to day, but I reckon I would end up buying little things for those I care about when they aren't expecting it. I like shopping for people, and can spend hours looking for items for others, without even looking to buy anything. However, I dislike shopping for myself, because I never find anything I want, no matter how long I spend looking.
That is probably a good thing.
Because I have so much physical, mental, and emotional baggage, I don't have room for any more stuff in my life.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
If you had a friend share whisky with you then it must have been a good day! My wife and I don't celebrate either. She did make me a card this year and it was totally unexpected.
A card is nice! At least you got something ;)
On the whiskey note, I am a gin drinker, but this was okay. Funny thing is here though, for gifts, people keep giving me cognac - I am Australian, I am not cultured enough to be a cognac drinker.
I don't think I would probably appreciate congac either, but I love whisky.
Aww that's so cute ^_^ I love smallsteps' card, that was a bit too cute XD
Valentine's Day is pretty much a non-event here too, we didn't even acknowledge it, the closest I got was having to run Middle to the shops for last minute V-day shopping for the "wife" (bestie) and the "sidepiece" (boyfriend XD) (and it was last minute because between TAFE and work and training she doesn't have a lot of time left over).
Definitely sounds like a good start to the weekend :D
All made from love hearts :D
:D I think this is the way it goes these days!
Interesting. We had a similar day at home, except that the young girls put some plants under the pillow to dream about their future soulmate.
Like --- weed? ;D
What kinds of plants? I haven't heard about this tradition before.
Actually, is a branch of Basil. You know, the spice. Under your pillow, to have prophetic dreams about your future husband.
Oooh, I like basil.
Did it woork?
Well, it is for women to dream of their future husbands. I am a man. :)
It’s great to change things up and do things away from these silly Hallmark holidays. I dislike them much, and I for the most part don’t participate in them unless it’s something for my son. There’s a lot of fun doing it randomly on like April 19th or something instead of these silly days.
Glad you got to surprise small steps too! It’s fun when they get to experience things like that on occasions so that they get to have some fun but not expect it every year.
Doing it for the kids is a bit different, but even then I tend to make it less about a day, and move the days around a bit but use it to mark the occasion. Like celebrating a birthday a week before or after. We mark the day of course, but I would like to have her a little less "time sensitive" to the world. "Noon" used to be when the sun was highest in the sky kind of thing.
She was pretty happy with it. But, she was really happy at being able to plan the surprise :)
Here in the Philippines, valentines day treat as a commercial love. Flowers price skyrocketed to 3x, same with chocolates, condoms and hotel room. Most couple, (not everyone) think valentines day is acelebrations to fulfill there intimate desires with there partner.
What these generation think about valentine day is far from its dark and cruel history where saint valentine executed this day.
While the love thing connected to it is a marketing strategy of Richard Cadbury to sell his heart shape box chocolate.
:D Condoms go up in price too?
It is like Santa dressed in the red and white clothes came from coke. And "A diamond is forever" came from DeBeers.
There are some none government organization giving away condoms. Price didn't go all time high but affected due to supply and demand 😜
When I was 12-13, I would sell condoms at school to guys who were to embarrassed to buy them themselves, even though they weren't actually going to use them for their intended purpose. At the time, a 12 pack was around 6 dollars and I could get between 1-3 dollars per condom.
That's a unique business model, instead of lemonade and fruit stand for teens. It's like selling narcotic, you dictate the price.
It is spelled dicktate in this case :D
I like the humour of the "dicktate"😁.
Your necklace choice was great, it was great that you surprised your wife and made her happy. I don't like celebrating such special days. However, I respect people who care about such days.
Yeah, it is like the kids who believe in santa claus - their choice.
Giving gifts on days like this is always expected but it also create memories. Your wife will always remember this day, because you gave her just what she wanted
Hope so :)
Discord Server.This post has been manually curated by @steemflow from Indiaunited community. Join us on our
Do you know that you can earn a passive income by delegating to @indiaunited. We share more than 100 % of the curation rewards with the delegators in the form of IUC tokens. HP delegators and IUC token holders also get upto 20% additional vote weight.
Here are some handy links for delegations: 100HP, 250HP, 500HP, 1000HP.
100% of the rewards from this comment goes to the curator for their manual curation efforts. Please encourage the curator @steemflow by upvoting this comment and support the community by voting the posts made by @indiaunited.
Congratulations @tarazkp! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
Your next target is to reach 1780000 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out our last posts:
Wow, awesome necklacw. u did good. 🙂😉👊 good story also,
A blushing, Finnish waitress. Now I know what I want for Valentine's Day; wish me luck.