Happy Hearts Day

We had a quiet Valenine's Day here... I've had a cold which has kept me sniffling and sneezing. I shouldn't complain because this is the first cold of the 'winter,' if you can refer to this sunny, breezy weather as 'winter.'  My cousins on Long Island sent me eMails telling me that it was near zero when they woke up this morning, and in the words of cousin F--- "0 is not a typo."

Not only was it zero on the Long Island thermometers, but they had a mixture of snow and ice, so putting the shovels away is not yet an option up there. I keep telling my cousins that they're living in the wrong zip code, but they're not listening. (And they're also telling me that I am the one with a head cold, not them.)

We went to the Chinese buffet restaurant in town on Valentine's Day... wonder of wonders, our little town has a really good restaurant (translation: exactly one) that does not play country-western music and does not offer sixteen kinds of BBQ on the menu along with a bowl of unwrapped toothpicks by the cash register. (Yes, I am a restaurant snob, and proud of it.)

When I opened up the boxes of Valentine's decorations at the beginning of this month, I picked through everything carefully and sent a bunch of things to my cousin's kids, and put some of the items into my booth at the antique shop, and then used the rest to make our living room and dining room a bit festive for Valentine's Day. When the ladies came for tea last week, they might have noticed the vintage heart candy boxes and the two Valentine trees... but probably not, since we were busy with paper crafts and tea.

I've made peace with the fact that we don't have big parties for Valentine's Day up here... ditto for both St. Patrick's Day and Easter.  When I put away what remains of our Valentine's decorations this week, I will look through the decoration boxes for St. Patty's and Easter... and mail some to my cousins' kids... and put some into the antique shop.... and consider myself lucky that I will have more room in the storage closet for Christmas decorations. (Translation: one can never have too many decorations for Christmas.)