Hearts on your sleeve

February is finally here. Valentine's Day has long been one of my favorite holidays. Being a hopeless romantic for most of my life really helped. Of course, until the Valentine's Day my first year in college, I never actually had a girlfriend to dote upon. For eleven years now I've had a beautiful wife to give flowers and chocolate and try to plan romantic things for...but something was different. As the years have progressed, my excitement for the holiday has waned.

It's not that I love my wife less...if anything it's quite the opposite. So I took to some soul searching to figure out why it was that I get less and less worked up for what was my favorite holiday. Here is what I have learned:

1) Valentine's Day is different when you can throw every dollar you own at it because you don't have a mortgage, to buy food, pay utilities (always higher during this stretch of the year)

2) Valentine's Day was a chance for me to let girls I liked, know I liked them because I was too chicken the rest of the year.

3) I try to show my wife how much I love her all year long so I'm not trying to pack a year's worth of love into one day. Plus, a marriage should be built on consistent affection. You can't make up in one day for 364 days of neglect.

4) Our Anniversary is at the end of November which I feel is a much better time to celebrate our love. Doing it again 2 and a half months later after paying for Christmas is a litte more difficult.

5) What I wanted romantically vs. what I had were worlds apart back then compared to now where they are pretty equal.

6) I don't have hours upon hours every week to think about it because I have other things which are more pressing.

And 7) I really suck at planning more than a few days or a week in advance. In high school I flew by the seat of my pants. On my mission we planned one week at a time. Most of my college classes have assignments done on a weekly basis. As a poor high school student it was easier to delay planning and still pull something off. Now I need to plan a baby-sitter, make reservations and figure out how to pay for it.

So over the years I've learned that Valentine's Day for many is an excuse or a reason to show the one they love how much they care but when you try and show it on a regular basis Valentine's Day transforms into a simple reminder once a year that if I haven't celebrated it at least once a month the other 11 months since the last time, I need to step it up. I love my wife. I'm lucky to have her and I'm thrilled she will be my Valentine for eternity. And I'm grateful that if I try, every day can be Valentine's Day with her.