considering consumerist holidays.

joyfully!

I unabashedly love Valentine’s Day. Low-stakes frivolity, earnest expressions of love, and sweet treats in the middle of winter is exactly what I need. Last night before daycare pickup, I spread a pink and wrinkled former baby swaddle, sometimes-pool towel, on our table. I placed a trio of candlesticks in its center and sprinkled it with pink foil-wrapped chocolate hearts. I set places with red napkins and hung a garland of hearts on the wall and then I hung another. On the way home from a meeting, I stopped at the bakery and bought heart-shaped cookies. A few days before that, James filled had our freezer with heart-shaped ravioli—dyed pink with beet juice—from the Italian grocery around the block.