I love Valentine's Day. When I was a kid I always had at least one Valentine. My mother. Even if it was sacharine sweet, I knew when I woke up Valentine's morning and went downstairs, there'd be a card and a small, heart-shaped box of candy waiting for me. Even as a teenager where I yearned for ANY OTHER Valentine, preferably of the opposite sex, I still appreciated that box of chocolates.
We celebrate Valentine's Day in my own house too. My son's daycare has always had the kids exchange valentine's cards. This year we did this one from Family Fun magazine:
I also made a handmade card for my son. Well, I wrote the inside, Mian drew the picture. It's me holding a heart-shaped balloon with my son's head in it. Festive! I also got him a Phineas & Ferb Valentine's day book to read at bedtime and this model of the human body (Valentine's heart - like a Real heart - get it?! Valentine's Day, a fun time to squeeze in some biology lessons!)
The husband never celebrated Valentine's Day in Pakistan ("People do, I didn't," he said.) The first Valentine's day gift he gave me was a bouquet of roses, and Easter chocolate (ha ha, funny story about that here), and a CD of some music I'd heard and liked at his friend's house once. Then we to his grad school advisor's house for a dinner he'd thrown for a graduating student - the first time I'd ever meet his (also Pakistani) advisor. Lucky for me he was also married to a non-Pakistani woman.
I never had to tell him to celebrate Valentine's day. I think he was just so excited to have a significant other, he really wanted to buy flowers and candy. It hasn't always been that way since though. There have been years we said jointly that we wouldn't celebrate, and we've never ever gone out the actual evening of Valentine's Day. That would be madness. But we usually do try to buy each other some little thing, and have a nice dinner the weekend before or after.
This year, though, he asked "We're not exchanging gifts, right?" and I may have irrationally yelled at him. Okay, I yelled at him. He is making me write that. In my defense I'd been asked that "We're not exchanging gifts for....." question about three other events in the past 18 months, so I was (apparently) starting to build up a little resentment. We're all fine now. We went to a dinner paid for from gift cards from my grandparents and I hear some gift is coming my way, though I have no ideas for gifts for M, and Valentine's Day is only five minutes away. I better get to bed quick so I can stall and have the work day tomorrow to think of something! Otherwise maybe I'm the one who will be irrationally yelled at next.
(Oh, whatever, it wasn't that bad.)
(Yes it was, he said.)
Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
We celebrate Valentine's Day in my own house too. My son's daycare has always had the kids exchange valentine's cards. This year we did this one from Family Fun magazine:
I also made a handmade card for my son. Well, I wrote the inside, Mian drew the picture. It's me holding a heart-shaped balloon with my son's head in it. Festive! I also got him a Phineas & Ferb Valentine's day book to read at bedtime and this model of the human body (Valentine's heart - like a Real heart - get it?! Valentine's Day, a fun time to squeeze in some biology lessons!)
The husband never celebrated Valentine's Day in Pakistan ("People do, I didn't," he said.) The first Valentine's day gift he gave me was a bouquet of roses, and Easter chocolate (ha ha, funny story about that here), and a CD of some music I'd heard and liked at his friend's house once. Then we to his grad school advisor's house for a dinner he'd thrown for a graduating student - the first time I'd ever meet his (also Pakistani) advisor. Lucky for me he was also married to a non-Pakistani woman.
I never had to tell him to celebrate Valentine's day. I think he was just so excited to have a significant other, he really wanted to buy flowers and candy. It hasn't always been that way since though. There have been years we said jointly that we wouldn't celebrate, and we've never ever gone out the actual evening of Valentine's Day. That would be madness. But we usually do try to buy each other some little thing, and have a nice dinner the weekend before or after.
This year, though, he asked "We're not exchanging gifts, right?" and I may have irrationally yelled at him. Okay, I yelled at him. He is making me write that. In my defense I'd been asked that "We're not exchanging gifts for....." question about three other events in the past 18 months, so I was (apparently) starting to build up a little resentment. We're all fine now. We went to a dinner paid for from gift cards from my grandparents and I hear some gift is coming my way, though I have no ideas for gifts for M, and Valentine's Day is only five minutes away. I better get to bed quick so I can stall and have the work day tomorrow to think of something! Otherwise maybe I'm the one who will be irrationally yelled at next.
(Oh, whatever, it wasn't that bad.)
(Yes it was, he said.)
Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
3 comments:
Nice reading about mixed family experience of this holiday celebration (I guess you have to have one). Me and my husband (he is an Indian)are going to celebrate somehow. Will update in my blog as well.
Happy Valentine's day to you and your family too!
nice to hear from you after a long gap.
khadija
Hey whatever-your-name-is gori girl:
I am a Pakistani guy from Lahore and moved to US in 2005 for school and then for work. I accidentally landed on your blog (while searching for another blog that had a word gori in it, but found yours instead) and boy was I addicted. It took me close to a month to read the entire blog from Day-1 to this very last post. Since my employer won't ever visit this comment section, I'd like to admit I read it at work (in Argo breaks). And although my background is a lot different than M's, but I found your observations about Pakistani culture pretty interesting. And let me tell you that you are living a more Pakistani life than I am right now. And honestly that made me sad/nostalgic partly because I have non-deliberately abandoned a lot of those values over the years in US. And reading your blog brought back those tidbits of Pakistani culture and memories. In a way, I have been doing the complete opposite of you - trying to learn and live an American life (not a hard transition though as I come from a fairly liberal family in Pakistan). But with Desisolation* and working/living with all white people for few years has changed my personality for the most part. Anyway your blog was a slice of home and family - Pakistani style. Please keep writing.
P.S. It was really weird to go through the blog in days that covers your life in years (like reading about chacho getting married and then in next few hours reading about their first wedding anniversary. very surreal).
* not a real word. invented by me. short form of living in desi-isolation. roughly means no interactions with desis over prolonged period of time :)
-R
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