My VDay BDay

I was born in a blizzard on Valentine’s Day in 1962.  While growing up my mother always told me it was the worst blizzard Newport Rhode Island had ever seen..so I literally just now looked it up.  The closest news item I could find was from WPRI-TV 12 which reported that the year 1962 had the snowiest winter on record with 30.1 inches…so  yeah, I’m officially a ‘blizzard baby.’

Having a birthday on Valentine’s Day is a double-edged sword.  But when I was little girl growing up in Groton, CT, it was not that big of a deal.  Here’s why:

We Hollis kids always had our birthday celebrations on the closest Saturday to our birth date.  My sister Casandra’s birthday fell on the 24th of February so we would celebrate both of our birthdays on one of the Saturdays in between both of our dates.  My parents had 7 children so this was the most efficient and effective way to celebrate. So consequently I never really focused on the actual day or date, just the month of February, and I was fine with that.  After dinner (where our mother would cook our favorite meal!) me and Casandra  would also have our own individual cakes and ice cream.  My cake was vanilla with red frosting (courtesy of food coloring!)  I usually had vanilla ice cream.  Casandra’s cake was strawberry with pink frosting and strawberry ice cream.  We would blow out our candles, eat our cake and ice cream, unwrap the  gifts and spend the rest of the night playing with our new gifts.   I always felt extra special though because each and every year of my actual birth date, until I was 18, my mother would give me a small, heart-shaped box of chocolates.  My mother is no longer alive so I still get tears in my eyes when anyone gives me a heart-shaped box of chocolates on my birthday…

Here is a picture of me (in blue with the cute little birthday hat) and my sister Casandra (Standing with balloon in hand) celebrating our 4th and 8th birthdays with my older brother Michael (seated behind me) and my younger brother Shawn (with frosting on his face) (smile).

At Mary Morrison Elementary School in Groton, CT, Valentine’s Day was not just my birthday, it was an event.

We were asked by our home room teacher to purchase enough Valentine’s Day cards to hand out to each and every one of our classmates.  This would ensure that nobody was left out on this holiday celebrating love.  Me and my classmates got around this by handing out the bigger Valentines to our faves!

Nowadays Valentine’s Day has morphed into such a massive Hallmark holiday that I feel as if my birthday pales in comparison (smile).    Also it feels waaaaaay too commercial to me.  You can’t walk or drive anywhere in the month of February, in advance of the holiday, without being bombarded with big mylar balloons, chocolates, candies, roses,  greeting cards, jewelry store specials, restaurant dinner specials, retail gift items, etc.  You would truly have to live under a rock to not know that February 14th is Valentine’s Day (smile).

As an adult I have so gotten used to the usual remarks concerning my birthday from: ‘Oh, you’re so lucky, you get 2 gifts, right?’  to:  Oh, you’re not lucky at all!  Your gifts are probably rolled into one…’

No matter, I celebrate in my own way.  For instance every year me and my girls (Gina, Thais, Sherry) celebrate our respective birthdays together over dinner (usually Japanase cuisine for mine) the night of, or closest Saturday night to, the birth date.  We’ve been doing this for over 20 years and we are all in our 50’s now so it’s always a good time.

Me and my S.O. James have had some memorable Vday/Bday celebrations together – most recently was in the Dominican Republic when we (with a bunch of other travelling vacationers) were on a catamaran party boat on our way to a day trip on the private island of Salinas…that was special…

And I always make a point of taking my birthday off from work every year as this day is much too special to me to spend it working…Besides, I’d much rather pamper myself that day (hair/nails/feet/facial/back massage), etc.

I’m turning 54 this year and my upcoming  BDay/VDay falls on a Sunday so I have not yet decided if I will take that next day (Monday) off…we shall see.

So happy Valentine’s Day everyone!  And let’s make this year more about the presence and less about the presents…