Since having Menininho, Valentine’s Day has become much less of a big deal in our house. Pre-baby, we’d get dressed up and go out for an Italian meal (and for Brasilian food on our anniversary, to celebrate our heritages). This year, we decided last minute on Saturday to try Applebee’s, where I had a very disappointing pasta dish and Mark ended up with some cheese dip appetizer because that was the only thing he could be confident was gluten-free.

Aaaanyway, the point of this post is not to talk about the flies that accompanied our meal (talk about nasty!), but to tell you about a family tradition: the Valentine Man. As far back as I can remember, each Valentine’s Day I received a small gift from the mysterious Valentine Man. When I was little it was a My Little Pony. As I got older, it might be a CD or a box of my favorite donuts. The gifts were never costly, and I appreciated that it was my dad’s way of letting us know he loved us, when his illness often kept him from being able to express that.

The Valentine Man is a tradition that Mark and I want to pass on to our kids. We went through Target tonight, looking for after-Valentine’s deals because, let’s be honest, it’s not like the baby knows/cares, but next year we’ll be more organized about it and do a card and everything. For now, though, Menininho is enjoying the toys he can take to the playground sandbox when the weather warms up in a few weeks.

Do you have any Valentine’s traditions?

And, have you entered the Have a Heart giveaway?