Make Your Valentine Swoon

Valentine's Day is a holiday, and so as the gift-giver that my mother raised me to be, I buy or make presents. It's that simple.

It's a great time to reflect on the people you love and how you can appreciate them a little bit more.

For my husband, I'll make what I hope is a delicious and romantic dinner and probably write him a heartfelt letter. He's a man who doesn't need much (mostly because he has virtually every gadget he could want), and I love the idea of just spending time with him. He's my best friend, after all.

As for the kids, I try to figure out what they love. For the ones who love chocolate I'm getting personalized M&Ms. Go to www.mymms.com t o order. Because they are boys, I'm picking their favorite colors (not necessarily red) and phrases they'll know come straight from my heart.

For the budding young lady in the house, either a manicure or a basket of nail polishes and hair do-dads.

And for the eldest, who cares mostly about the cost of getting to and fro and "what's to eat?", either a gift card for his favorite place, the gas station (where he can get something to eat, too. Yum.), or any number of his favorite lunch spots (i.e. Chipotle, Subway or, if he's feeling fancy, Applebee's).

In the process of thinking about all this stuff, I found some other interesting ideas that I liked a lot. Here are a couple:

Have a tried and true romantic (that would be me)? The hopeless kind that re-reads Jane Austen books? What about this t-shirt I found on Etsy.com for $22. It' s a scoop neck that has Mr. Darcy's proposal on it, "In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you." Swoon. Gotta love that! (go to the "brookish" store on etsy.com to buy).

Got a person who loves a whoopie pie? (again, me) I'm not sure why, but a company called the whipped bake shop calls their whoopie pies, "whippie" pies (okay, I can guess why). They sell a sampler pack (one each of their red velvet, oatmeal and chocolate-vanilla whippie pies) for $12. Now that's how to hit a perfect not on your loved-ones sweet tooth!

Seems these ideas are perfect for me! Huh. Interesting. Now let's see if he takes the hint, shall we? Happy Valentine's Day!