Happy Valentine's Day! I'll be renewing my marriage vows at Mass this morning without my Valentine, but we had a nice phone chat this morning. The connection is surprisingly good, despite the fact that it is 10.5 hours later in the day where he is.
We don't do much to mark Valentine's Day around here. A favorite quote from The Little Prince: "The thing that is important is the thing that is not seen . . ." A nice card does my heart as much good as any supermarket roses or box of chocolates. But I have been reminiscing about past Valentine's dinners. We didn't go out often early in our marriage, but on our first Valentine's Day as a married couple, in Newport, Rhode Island, we went to a little seafood restaurant on the Point, down the street from where we lived on the first floor of an old house. Our upstairs neighbors were always making curries that fragranced the whole house, while I cooked rice with canned vegetables mixed in. Not a high point in my culinary history. I was six months pregnant and always hungry, so it was a real treat to dine out on fresh lobster.
But my favorite Valentine: in 1998, my second son was born on the 13th, so on the 14th, our little family welcomed him home. By our second anniversary we had two babies, and have had birthday cake on Valentine's days since.
So until March, I have two twelve year olds. We are in our Irish twin month.
