Happy Valentine's Day by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Going shopping the last few weeks, the stores were inundated with adorable teddy bears holding hearts with all sorts of cutesy saying on them, bouquets of flowers, and chocolates of assorted sizes and shapes. Let alone all the other miscellaneous items covered in hearts.

It’s Valentines Day, and people everywhere have been trying to find the perfect give for their loved one. A friend of mine even went on Facebook asking for advice of what to give her husband. She didn’t want to go with the standard fair. And who could blame her, it’s not original, nor is it personal.

Let’s face it, flowers and chocolate are rather generic, they merely say, “Hey, its Valentine’s Day, here’s a present for you.” Not very special is it?

So, I’m going to give you the advice I gave my friend. (And I know its probably too late for this year, but really this advice works for the entire year.) Here it is: Stay away from the highly commercialized stuff – buy something that speaks to the heart. Buy something to tells the recipient that you know that person and really care about him or her.

And I can give you a prime example of the greatest Valentine’s gift I ever got from Tom. This was back in 2001, we were struggling to make ends meet and I managed to finagle five whole bucks out of our budget to get Valentine’s presents. Not much when that had to be divided two ways, but on top of that, I was on a diet and didn’t want him to get me any chocolate.

Tom went to Walmart thinking he couldn’t possibly find me a decent gift, not when a small box of chocolates was out. What did he find me? A mechanical pencil. Not just any mechanical pencil but a fat one, with a rubber around the middle.

How can that be so special? Easy. It showed he knew me. He knew I had trouble both sharpening and hold a regular pencil. This pencil solved both my problems, but not only that, it showed how much he cared and supported my desire to write!

That pencil spoke volumes to me. And that is what a gift should do.

The only time you should be buying those adorable seasonal teddy bears is when the recipient collects those things. The only time you should buy any of a variety of themed articles is if the recipient will love it. And stay away from those prepackaged gift sets, find something that is more individual and personal, or at least try.

And Happy Valentine’s Day and writing everyone. 😊