Valentine's Day
PERFECT MAN/WOMAN GIFTS
submitted by: Michelle Brauman

The best Valentine came from my husband who didn’t much like the idea of Valentine’s Day. He felt it was a holiday to make men buy more gifts – if they didn’t it made them look bad. Needless to say, I didn’t expect anything.
He made me a beautiful box: he went to a craft shop, purchased an unfinished oval box. Painted it red, lined the inside with lace and glued two wooden hearts with the date and our initials inside the lid. Filled it with chocolate kisses. Then he hot glued beautiful dried flowers on the top of the lid. I thought he must have bought it that way. Very Martha Stewart! I love it and cherish it. It was truly made with love.
I bought him Yankee tickets and bought a box of Cracker Jacks. I very delicately opened the box and placed the tickets inside as the “prize.” When I gave him the box he was happy it was something practical-a box of food! When I told him to open it for the prize he couldn’t figure out how the Cracker Jack company could put tickets in the box. What a man. I had to explain it to him. Editor’s note: This is a great example of romantic differences in the sexes. Women don’t want practical or necessarily expensive, they want sentiment. Men don’t mind practical at all and if it involves food or one of his hobbies (like sports), all the better.