Why You Shouldn't Hate Valentine's Day

It's almost February so I'm going to go ahead and pull out the V-word. If you hadn't noticed it's all over the grocery stores. I know plenty of people who have negative feelings towards this innocent holiday.

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays (just after Christmas and tied with birthdays, Easter, Casimir Pulaski Day, and the 4th of July).

This is in spite of the following:

1. I often get made fun of for how I pronounce valentine.
2. In the last eight-ish years of my life I had around ten boyfriend-types but not once have I had a "real Valentine." Some people would consider this a major life fail.

However, I was conditioned from a young age to believe Valentine's Day meant:

1. Giving and receiving tiny boxes of Nerds.
2. Dog stuffed animals with hearts for noses from my mom
3. Outfits with hearts on them

Which then progressed to:

1. Sparkly tattoo valentines 
2. Plastic necklaces from my mom
3. Construction of elaborate containers, including one that was a dog made out of six cereal boxes and you put the valentines in its mouth. 

Sometimes it also included matching outfits with my sister or cousin.

Exhibit A:

How could I not love this holiday that has been so good to me?

Also:

1. Cinnamon lips (dipped in chocolate)
2. Chocolate
3. Tiny packages of all the candy you like. 

Fact: Red, pink, and white are always the best flavors of anything*.

In high school I would attempt to write really thoughtful letter to my friends (mostly by piecing together the pop songs of the time) or continue with the old pink-and-white Nerds standby that never really disappoints.

My freshman year in college my mom sent me a box of chocolates and I realize she had been and always would be my Valentine. Meanwhile my roommate and I made like 5 dozen oatmeal cookies with red, pink, and white M&Ms that we gave out to people.

Life Club was invented and homemade, collaged, and stamped Valentines became mandatory while living with Elizabeth. Including the Valentine's Day I was in love with two boys with the same name and she left them anonymous valentines I had made without telling me she was going to. 

Also at some point I started wearing this child's sized heart puppy sweater that I found who knows where. 

Then this tradition started:

And it is still alive and well. Standby by for the batch of 2014. 

I took a stab at digital valentines in 2012. You can see the rest of them here.

Have I convinced you that Valentine's Day is as good an excuse as any to love ALL the people you love not and not a time to get preoccupied about that one person you may or may not have?

I get it, being single can suck and feel really lonely sometimes. Being lonely is not fun, but I think if you look around you'll see you're not really so alone. I will join you singles once again as we face Feb. 14 and the surplus of stuffed bears where there used to be blessed Christmas decorations. But there is so much love to give and share now and anytime of year that we should just embrace it and spread the love. You probably look great in red too.

If you're really lonely you can hang out with me. I'll be the one in the puppy sweater surrounded by candy wrappers. 

FYI: This Valentine's Day I will be accepting love in the forms of compliments, See's Chocolate's Bordeaux, any food really, Sodalicious/Cravings sugar cookies, puppies, and maybe hugs.

Stay tuned for more Valentine's Day loving in the next couple weeks.

*Also green. I love apple and watermelon stuff.