Happy Valentine's Day

When we were dating and during the first year of our marriage, Rob used to buy me the most beautiful flowers. What I loved most about the bouquets he sent me was their uniqueness.  He never sent me roses.  I have only ever received roses from him once (on my 19th birthday he sent me 18 long stem roses because he knew my ex-boyfriend was stopping by and would see them).  Instead he sent me orchids and birds of paradise and lilies.  Then the honeymoon period wore off and the flowers stopped coming, until a few years ago when I told Rob I was going to buy my own Valentine flowers--because I love any excuse to have fresh flowers in the house.  So he took me and we picked out a bouquet for me and one each for the girls.

Tradition was born.  We got flowers and Rob didn't have to pick them out.  Over the weekend while running errands Rob pulled into Costco.

"What are you getting at Costco?" I asked.

"I have one thing on my list here." He stated, and then handed me his blackberry to look at his list: buy the girls flowers.  "I was going to buy them and bring them home as a surprise, but I thought you might not like what I picked out."  He explained.

Of course I would have loved anything he picked--because he picked something on his own!  But none-the-less, the girls were thrilled to pick out their own flowers.

Hannah decided right away on a bunch of lilies.

Signe took longer, but settled on a bouquet of red, white and pink carnations--she liked the pink the best.

The woman working there then asked what I wanted and directed me to the $15 bouquets of roses.  She seemed rather surprised when I picked out two dozen pink tulips (even muttering something along the lines of "Everyone has their own taste in flowers").  Nothing says spring like a shock of pink tulips!

Of course, now that I think about it,  Rob is the only one without a Valentine's Day gift.  I guess I better go make him some cookies--they are his weakness.

Happy Valentine's Day!