The Importance of Tradition

Ray and I started dating in the month of December. So when Valentine's Day rolled around (2 months later...eek) I really wasn't sure what to expect. I thought it would be pretty low key..maybe go for a drink? After all we hadn't dated for very long. I remember walking home from school and getting a call from him asking if I liked lobster and wondering if he could make me lobster pasta for dinner. Are you kidding me?! I texted my best friends telling them I had truly hit the jackpot. 

The whole afternoon I worried what about what I was going to wear. I wanted to look cute and sexy, but also pretty casual since we were going to be eating at home. I ended up wearing some skimpy black dress I would never wear in a million years now. Ray came over with all of the groceries, including ingredients for mojitos, a few bottles of wine and dessert. We talked for hours while he cooked, drank way too much and laughed all night. That was 7 years ago. Every Valentine's Day since, he has cooked me the same dinner. We went from cooking it in the place I lived when we met, to the condo we bought together, to our first place here in LA on Doheny and now to our condo in Beverly Hills. Every year the recipe changes slightly and our conversation revolves around different things. Every year it is one of my favorite nights that I look forward to for months.

There is something to be said about tradition- having one event to look forward to each year. I never knew 7 years ago that we would end up doing the same thing for Valentine's Day each year. As a hopeless romantic, it truly is my favorite way to spend the holiday.

This year we are thinking about celebrating it on Saturday (a few days before the actual day). Since we work full time, drinking a few bottles of wine on a Tuesday night isn't ideal. I asked Ray yesterday whether that felt a bit wrong, not to celebrate it on the actual day since we always have. Then he pointed out that as we get older, our family will grow, life will get more complicated and we likely won't always celebrate it on the actual day (i.e. as we get older our hangovers are more real and our jobs are more intense).  The most important thing is that we continue the tradition. What kind of traditions do you guys have for Valentine's Day?

Photography by Felicia Lasala