Valentine Gifts

Do you celebrate Valentine's Day? Or do you think it's a Hallmark trap? If it is, I totally fall into it every year.

Or have you completely forgotten about it until now?

Worst Valentine gift I ever received? A book. From the guy I eventually, in spite of that, married. I love books. Hell, I write them. My house overflows with them. But Valentine's Day? C'mon! We were still dating at that time. The guy is trained better now. Candy and flowers. Really, that's what I prefer. He gets candy, too, but I've never found out if he really wants it. Maybe I should be getting him books. I wonder if they are actually appropriate Valentine gifts.

Most of the books I try to sell are anthologies. I did find a wonderful quote about anthologies that I can tie into Valentine's Day with it's flower reference. This is the answer to the February 13th New York Time acrostic. (If you haven't solved it and would like to, get off this page before you read further!)

When you solve that puzzle you end up with an author, a title, and a quote from the work:

Barnette

A Garden of Words

The anth- in anthurium means to bloom. The Greek word for flower, anthos, gave us one of the loveliest of English words, anthology, which literally means a gathering of flowers or garland, a literary bouquet, if you will.

Having kids and grandkids is just an excuse to buy and send more cute cards and candy containers--and the blooming flower from Hallmark. I sent it to all my kids this year. Here's a link to a demo. I saw it in the store and couldn't resist!

If you feel like commenting, I'd like to hear your best or worst Valentine Day story.

Illustrations from Wiki Commons are public domain.