Love Day | Valentine's Day Survey Results

Happy Valentine’s Day! In this special episode, we dive into love, expectations, and the traditions surrounding February 14th. We surveyed our listeners with 10 questions about their thoughts on Valentine’s Day, the pressure to give and receive gifts, favorite traditions, and what a perfect Valentine’s Day looks like. Whether you’re single, in a relationship, or somewhere in between, this episode explores all the ways people celebrate love. Plus, we end with a reminder that love isn’t just romantic—it’s about friendship, self-love, and appreciation for the people in our lives.

• Join the conversation: What are your feelings towards this particular holiday? How did your weekly challenge go? Share your reflections in the comments or via our social media.
• Follow us on TikTok and Instagram @generationalteapod, watch us on YouTube, and listen to us wherever you get your podcasts!
• What She Said: “I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you." - Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• Weekly challenge: Take yourself out on a solo date! Whether it is to see a movie, enjoy your favorite meal, or sit in a coffee shop, carve out the time to prioritize the relationship you have with yourself. 
• Microphone flags by Impact PBS: https://impactpbs.com/ 
• Intro music by Cymatix
• Logo by @makariann 
• Business email: generationalteapod@gmail.com

Transcript

0:14

It's love week. Hello. Hello. And welcome back to another episode of the generational tea podcast. Hi, I'm Ronnie and I'm Kena. We are so glad you're here with us today. if you're watching us. online through our YouTube, you can see that Kena has on a pretty little pink shirt for Valentine's Day. Where's your pink shirt? Y'all, I don't own a single thing that's pink, purple, lavender, light pink, any of it, so. It's just all denim and camo. Denim, camo, and gray. So, we're glad you're here. we've got a fun show for you today. Yeah. Well, before we get started, just want to remind you guys, if you could, go ahead and leave us a review while you're thinking of it. it really helps us build our podcast and. If we get more reviews, especially positive reviews, hopefully more people are going to be able to find our show. And that's our goal. We want to be able to impact as many people as possible. So if you're following along on our journey, just please do what you can to help. We really, really appreciate every single piece of feedback and every review we get. We really appreciate it. And we also have some Fun stuff on our social media, so go check it out at Generational Teapod. Gonna be posting all kinds of snippets from our episodes, motivational stuff, stuff me and Ronnie be doing together because we'd be crazy. So go check out our social media to see a little more of a glimpse inside of our life. Yes. Alright, I have a question. Yes. Right off the bat. How do you feel about Valentine's Day? It's a loaded question. Well, I think it's exciting because I think that Love should be celebrated and at least we have, you know, one day set aside that people can remember their loved ones and not just their partners, but, more of a love. I know my parents, they continued to give me Valentine's Day gifts. Up until probably a few years ago and they're in there. They were in their 80s. So that was always fun because my dad would try to find something that I wouldn't buy for myself And so yeah, and you know, we pretty much live broke so falling on a budget Falling on a budget baby. That is us. So, you know in the past Valentine's Day is usually, with Jim and myself was more of, a low key thing. Yeah, yeah. I would say same. Very much same. Yeah. I don't think I've ever had a Valentine's Day that was, like, above and beyond or super memorable, but I do appreciate when it rolls around every year me and Wes and Elise will try and do something special again We're usually balling on a budget. We're only three years into our marriage and we're in our 20s. So life is rough No, like super fancy dinners. No romantic getaways, but I kind of feel the same as you I'm not like super jazzed up about it every year when it comes around Because we never do anything massive, but I do think love needs to be celebrated I'm glad that we have a holiday to do that. earlier in my life, I wish I would have viewed it more as like a celebration of love, not just romantically. Yeah. Cause I think that's kind of what it's designated for, but I will say that I like that you can celebrate in any way you want, whether that's you're celebrating your friendships or your family or anything like that or your partner. Yeah, but it's good. Yeah. My friend Claire, which we have talked about her a good bit on these podcasts, she calls it National Singles Awareness Day. So that's what Claire thinks about Valentine's Day. But she is a ball of fun and so much love. But yeah, she's always like, yes, yes, I know. It's National Single Awareness Day. No one needs to remind us of that. I do remember when I was single and I was like, Ugh, Valentine's Day. Sucks. But that's because I was like, Oh, it's for a romantic celebration. But it could be way more. Yeah. Yeah. Especially like in school. Oh god. Middle and high school. You didn't get a valentine from your crush? Oh my gosh. Oh my. And some girls come in and after school they've got the balloons with the carnations and all the stuff. Well, I was homeschooled, so I didn't get a valentine from anybody. Oh, well, we'll, we'll start making up for that this year. Oh, that's good. Yes. Well, Weston, it's his responsibility now. That's right. He better be watching this episode. Yes. So we're trying something new for this episode and I actually love it. We made continue to do this in future episodes is we sent out a survey to get some feedback on just 10 general questions surrounding Valentine's Day and very enlightening answers. We had over 30 responses, but me not doing my research, yeah, I went to SurveyMonkey and apparently have to pay like 25 a month to get access to more than 25 responses, so we're just going on the 25. We didn't talk about any response you said in this episode. It's quite possible that I couldn't access it and I don't believe in spending 25 on that. She has standards, budget standards, I guess. One of our first questions that we asked on the survey is what I just asked Ronnie how do you feel about Valentine's Day? And the options for chasing were, you know, you either love it, dread it, feel neutral But those kind of things and the highest answer was actually that yeah, it's okay And that was 60 percent of our 25 people which You know I can understand that. Yeah. For sure. A couple things I did want to highlight. So we did give the option for people to write out their response and one person said that this holiday can be great but it can also be sad depending on the timing. So if you're going through like a rough patch or conflict with your partner that can make feelings towards Valentine's Day more complicated. Do you agree? Yeah, same. Yeah. it's not even just partner or that way. It's love celebrated between parents and children and things like that. but yeah. Definitely. Yeah. And then another respondent said that they love Valentine's, but they think we should celebrate love more than one day of the year, which I think we both just said that. Well, and I think we take for granted. I know in our personal, like our immediate family of, I've always expressed love in a big way, try to every day. And I feel like Jim has stepped into that. but I really think that there are a lot of people that haven't issues showing love. So practice makes progress is what I'm saying. I like it. Wise, wise woman told me that. Just wish she was rich. It's me! I'm broke! yeah. So, I mean, I think we can take for granted, our loved ones. And if we're not intentional on expressing that love in a unique way every day, trying to figure it out. for folks that have a hard time communicating how much they love someone. I think Day is great. Yeah, I think so too. And I think life is just so overwhelming and there's so much going on every time that I can get Hard to remember to celebrate your loved ones and to be intentional with that So I think it's great that we do have a day to remind us to do that Yeah, and we just have to figure out how to carry that on throughout the year All right. So the second question we ask is what type of gifts do people prefer? What type of gifts do you prefer from Jim? Acts of service. Like doing the dishes? Doing the dishes. the gift of time for sure, is the best gift with him. but also like either us doing a day date where we ride our bikes down. To Greenville and have a nice lunch. That's something if you're balling on a budget for sure, is try to, even if you can't do it on actual Valentine's day, do your celebration on the weekend or whenever at a lunchtime or brunch, because you're going to get, more bang for your buck and it's unexpected. Yeah, you know, it kind of makes you look forward to something. Yes. I think that's one of the best parts. Yeah, for sure Yeah, I would say I'm the same. I like it quality time in the form of like experiences But that's like going out to the movies or Weston and I love to go to stand up comedy clubs That's something we love to do don't have the money to do it as often as we want I think you're sensing the theme that we're broke Or I also really like Thoughtful gifts, not necessarily like A materialistic thing, maybe like a love letter, or like a handmade gift. I always loved to make Weston handmade gifts, so I got him like a little book. It was like, all the reasons I love you, and you just fill it out. Yes. So stuff like that are my favorite type of gifts. But in terms of Valentine's Day, and the gifts people prefer, so, the top answer for this question took over nearly half of the vote, and that was also experiences. So like, weekend dinner, getaway. Anything of that nature. And then much lower than that were other things like flowers, personalized gifts, Chocolate. Yes. I know how you feel about chocolate. Well, we know how our men feel about chocolate. What is it that you say about that? You know, what's better than chocolate is your man loving chocolate. And then you don't, have to ever feel guilty like, oh, I don't need to be eating this Hershey bar. You just want to keep your half. Meanwhile, Jim's got a drawer full of like 17 Butterfingers. He knows I don't like those. Yeah, there you go. You each have your own candy bars. It's like a match made in heaven. It is, it is. Okay, The other ones, Flower Suites and Personalized Gifts, those each took like 8 12 percent of the vote. much lower than Experiences. And then one Personalized Answer actually said that they prefer Legos and Quality Time. And I was like, oh, that's adorable. I love that. Well, tell them what. Weston got you with the Legos. For my birthday, he got me like a little, I used to, I grew up with Legos, I love them, I think they're so fun, even as an adult, and he bought me like this little, it's like a little Potted plant. It's like a It's not a potted plant. It's like a, what do you, you pour it into the, to the plants. Oh, um, anyways, it's like, it was like a, um, thing that waters the, watering can, watering. I hope to God. It's the thing you water the plants with. It was like a Lego thing, but it has like butterflies and flowers growing out of it. So we got to build it together and it was very fun. Yeah. Yeah. Those kinds of things. Very, very cute. Yes. I would, that was a proud mom that I've met. When you sent me a picture of that, I was like, He done good. He done good. He did good. He did good. He is not the type that likes, or finds it easy to like, write me letters, or like, make handmade gifts, which I just said I love. But he does know how to do well in the other areas. Yes. Yes. And that's it. It's all about the balance. Yeah. Getting to know your partner. Not letting your expectations get in the way of how your partner gives you gifts. Yes. I think. Okay. How much do you usually spend on Valentine's Day? I think we probably typically spend maybe 50 to 60. Yeah. Nothing too crazy. Yeah. Nothing too crazy. And that usually includes Two really good steaks from the butcher, a nice bottle of wine, maybe, a nice dessert, and then, you know, potatoes or whatever with it. So, I would say 50 to 60. Another reason you should tune into our Instagram is, I'm just gonna upload all the iconic Ronnie quotes and moments that happen throughout the day. I think last week or the week before, she said she would eat a leather strap if it had A1 sauce on it, so. Yes. And now a bottle of A1 sauce is like 10. 99. Freak, man. I'd be rationing that A1 sauce. Oh my gosh. I would say I probably spend around 50 maybe. Maybe not this year. But we usually just go out to dinner. That's usually how we celebrate and that's probably about how much a nice dinner would cost. Yes, well, maybe not today, maybe not today, but you can get some killer steaks and a bottle of wine and all that for under 50 bucks and then you're at home and you're not having to sit in uncomfortable chairs or wait in line, even though you may have reservations. It's typically what we do. If we don't go out to dinner, we make a meal at home. Yes. We love to stay at home. Yes. Well, spending habits is a topic of conversation with Valentine's Day. Because a lot of times, and I think some of The animosity towards Valentine's Day is that it's kind of a consumer holiday. And, I want you to guess, unless you already looked at it. I haven't looked. How much did Valentine's Day generate in America last year? It's shocking. I feel like my answer would be so dumb. Can I cheat? I've not looked down there. I thought it would be in the billions, but I was kind of afraid to say billion because I honestly my mind cannot It's hard to comprehend how much one billion dollars is and that makes the actual statistic more shocking Yeah, twenty eight point five million dollars last year. Yeah, and that was in a down economy 2024 Insane, that's crazy. So some of the statistics On that, I also found it interesting, Millennials, especially people from, like, 23 to 29 spend the most money on Valentine's Day more than any other generation. Because they're trying to Catch that fish and reel it in. You know, they've got an agenda around Valentine's Day, but I'm telling you what, they better watch out because if you set the bar too high initially, you're screwed. Yeah. It's gonna be hard to chase. in terms of our survey answers, so the majority, which was 36 percent of our answers planned to spend 20 to 50. 28 percent were. Plan to spend 50 to 100. Oh my gosh, big spenders. 16 percent of respondents were not going to spend anything at all and another 16 percent plan to spend less than 20. So, nice. Very good. How much is a card nowadays? Hmm. I would say eight to ten dollars. Yeah, and that's not even one where you open it and it sings to you or it pops up. It's just a piece of paper that looks pretty. Yeah. Well, I got some pink paper in there. We could make little hearts. We probably should. Yeah, we should. Yeah, let's do it. Do you ever feel pressure to celebrate Valentine's Day or make it super extravagant? You know, throughout the course of 30 plus years that Jim and I have been together, I think it's cyclical. Sometimes, especially when you're younger, the folks that you hang out with, It just depends on your friend group and what they're doing. Yeah, it does influence us. Sometimes you feel like you gotta match it. Match it or you feel, yeah, and you may not even tell your spouse you, you feel like you need to match it. You just feel like you need, you know, you just do something. Well, you might not even be aware that Like you have all these expectations because of what your friends or family are doing. Like they're all doing like extremely fancy dinners, nice pieces of jewelry, I don't know, all that kinds of stuff. And then you're like, well, we're just giving each other cards. Yeah. Homemade cards at that. So we're just flirting. Not even a card. It's a. A piece of notebook paper ripped off. But, I mean, personally, I don't feel pressure because, well, I know that I don't have money for one, and two, I know that it's not like a measure of our love. we can still do things that are super meaningful and have a lot of good quality time and that doesn't really mean that our Valentine's Day was any less or more than anyone else's. Yeah. But I more feel like that than I did, five, seven years ago. Yeah. I probably felt more pressured. Well, and the pressure on the girls, a lot of times is what if he doesn't give me something as nice or anything, or, you know, like just couples that hang out together, sometimes that can negatively influence or positively influence. If you've got somebody in your friend group who is a guy and he's super attended to details and all that, it's hard and you have to be really conscientious to not compare your spouse. To them or your partner to them To those people that maybe, you know, like Dawson. He's one of us. He's our three I mean, if I needed advice on what to really get somebody for Valentine's Day I feel like he would have some really thoughtful Answers but they too don't really go crazy. Yeah. I also think Don't compare because your lifestyles are going to be different. Like, some people are more materialistic and they like the really fancy, really crazy things. And that's okay. That doesn't need to be shamed or anything. But me and Weston's lifestyle is very low key and we like to spend a lot of time at home. Mm hmm. But yeah, it's just something that's interesting, but as far as our survey goes, so 70 percent of our answers said that they don't feel pressure to give or receive extravagant gifts, anything like that. And then 12 percent said it depends. and I'm guessing it depends whether you're in a new relationship, whether you have the money to do it. I guess a lot of different factors could affect that, but like Ronnie said earlier, if you're in a new relationship, start the bar low. Especially if you might get married to this person and be with them for decades. Hopefully It's gonna be hard to top. Just keep topping it. Not that you have to but but Sometimes you may be expected to yeah. Yeah So one of the customized answers for this question said that the longer Her and her partner are together, the less inclined they feel to give gifts, but rather they just go out to dinner to celebrate, and they focus it more on quality time versus gifts, which I feel like is true. I feel like that might be good, unless you're someone who has a love language of receiving gifts. Yeah. Yeah, and that's something you really need to take inventory of before you get too deep into a relationship. Yeah, what's our love language? Yes, I actually mentioned that in here somewhere. So my kind of answer to this was after being married over 30 years, we never really had a lot of extra cash. We would do dinner out, but these days it's really difficult to go out and get an amazing steak, unless you do the peddler or some of those higher end, Ruth Chris, whatever. And like I said, nowadays we just prefer to buy great steaks and cook, but who am I kidding, Jim is doing the cooking. This year we're doing something special though. And I don't know what we'll have to talk about next year. We're going to Miami, and we'll be there for Valentine's Day. And, I wanted to give y'all a little vacation hack. There is an app called Resort Pass. Mm-hmm What you can do is on this resort pass, you can put in the date that you're gonna go and you can actually buy day passes to these five star resorts. You don't have to stay there. You've got the live band. You've got, you know, the pool guy bringing you drinks or whatever. You have access to a bathroom, which is pretty important if you're going to be out on the beach all day. We have lounge chairs that are saved for us plus we have their beach access chairs. So Just thinking if um, you might live in those areas or it's pretty inexpensive to just fly to miami It really is and it may be that you can't stay on miami beach But what you can do is stay somewhere more inland and then pick a day or so to do one of these passes and the ones that we got were 50. That's not bad. Each. And that was not bad. The cheapest one I saw for this time, and it's actually on Valentine's Day, was 35. But I didn't like that resort. Oh, also you can put in there, whether you want it kid friendly or adults only, you know, so there's a lot of things. They also have like cabanas and whole little huts that you can rent In some of the areas, so I'm looking forward to that. Well, it'll be a special Valentine's Day. Yeah, we'll probably have to pay 50 to park, but it's okay. That's what they don't tell you. We're gonna pack some Cheez Its. Pepperonis. Out of five Star Wars that work. I wonder if I'll get kicked out. That's something I would do, honestly. Yeah, so we'll see how it goes, but you should check it out. It's called Resort Pass and it's an app. We haven't discussed what we're gonna do for Valentine's Day, but But you'll have the house all to yourself. Yeah, we're gonna be celebrating all over your house. Yes, I'm sure. You don't sound excited. Turn the ring camera off, please. Don't worry, I'll clean. It's fine, it's fine. Okay, let's move on to celebrating love on Valentine's Day. our question that we asked was, how do you typically celebrate Valentine's Day? Was it romantic dinners, trips, small gestures, or just skip it all together? And the most picked answer was a low key celebration at home. That was 52 percent of the answers. So over half, which that's what me and Weston like. Yeah, and I just thought about this. It's so random. I'm good at that. If I'm anything, I'm random and disjointed. No, I was just thinking about, I would have loved to have known what percentage wanted to be at home pre COVID. Because there are lots of industries that have, drastically declined, after COVID churches really have a hard time because people got used to watching it at home so while I think some of the things about bringing community together and not always having to run and be busy, I'm just, I'm curious if that, I think it would be a good bit less. I think it would be different, yeah. I think it would be different. COVID forced us to like really establish what means to us. You know, we all had to take like that little inventory and there weren't a lot of places you could go out to eat, which is tragic for my family. I definitely think after COVID, I can do and accomplish pretty much everything out of. My home, including celebrating Valentine's Day. It's true. It's true. And I definitely feel more equipped to do it now. Yeah. It's something that feels more habitual. Yeah. I love it though, because you really can't celebrate the way you probably should. And one of the partners wants to in a restaurant. Yeah, that's true. That's impressive. Yay. Yay listeners. I love that. So half of them picked a low key celebration, 38 percent they just like to go out or stay and have a romantic dinner, 20 percent said they do not celebrate. Okay. Those are the 20 percent that are 12 percent said they just exchanged gifts, 4 percent prefer a weekend getaway, which is the least picked answer. But when we get a little farther ahead, I'm actually going to circle back to that because I find it interesting that only 4 percent of people picked that. All right, now we got a moment for the single people. Yes. Yes. Because you guys are just as important on Valentine's Day, okay? So, we asked single people how they prefer to spend their Valentine's Day. And responses were spread a little bit more equally for this question. 28 percent said they prefer to treat themselves with self care. Which is usually what I would do when I was single for Valentine's Day. I would just Focus on myself, which you know, that's great. What is your favorite self care? Activity, well, I would say I prefer to Take a bubble bath and listen to an audiobook or like color and listen to an audiobook Usually do anything relaxing while listening to an audiobook. Yeah. Okay. Cool. What about you? One of the things that I, I love, getting hydro facials and shout out to my buddy Bridget at Spa North. We're going to have her on in the next couple of months, but she just does an amazing spa facial. So if there was something that like I could do just for myself, it would. Probably be that. Yeah, but I wouldn't do it because then I'm doing it by myself. Yeah. Well, you just got to take yourself out Yeah, yeah, and there's other things self care. I love to just sit out in the Sun. Yeah quiet time with yourself That's self care too. Yeah sit outside read a book Listen to some aimless music that really could just be in the background. But as you can see, I am quite chatty. this week in South Carolina, we've had some pretty days. It's been really nice a couple of days and, we will go outside and she's working. I'm working or researching or reading or somebody's policing the dogs. But at any rate, I have to go out there. I asked her, I think it was Thursday, if she would sit outside with me and I said, I promise I will not interrupt you. I won't ask you any questions. I won't make any comments. I was like, all right. That did not last long. I was laughing at the dog and He was just so funny. Yeah, I disrupted. Sorry about that. 21 percent said they prefer to hang out with friends like a galentine. Yeah, I know Liz at lit and lean She just had a galentine's weekend with her company in on a rooftop silent disco in New York City and I saw that that was super fun. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, if you haven't seen our interview with her, it's episode 5, I believe and she's so cool. It's like a great Yes, and then 14 percent said they like to work on personal goals. I was like what? Okay. No, I'm just kidding I'm not judging. I'm not judging Good for you, I'm just jealous because I could never. 7 percent said they avoid celebrating. Yeah. and the answer that I actually loved most was a personalized answer and I have a guess of who this is, but I'm not going to say. someone said that they celebrate wine day, because in their home country, Valentine's Day is also St. Tryphon Day, and the custom is to drink wine. So if you ain't got nothing else to do, you can celebrate some other country's holiday by drinking wine. Yes. It's a win win situation. Exactly. That's good. It is good. I think I know who that is, too. Alrighty. Some favorite traditions is another, question that we looked at, in our, survey. We asked them, what are your favorite valentine traditions, 52 percent said they love the tradition of sharing a meal with someone special, partner or otherwise. It's a classic. Yep. 28 percent said they love to gift and receive gifts. and 12 percent said they love to send and receive cards to loved ones and 8 percent have no traditions. yeah, I was always the mom that was picking up the little Valentine's cards that come in on two wheels at nine 55 at Walmart or Walgreens to pick up those little boxes of cards so my kids could take some. things. Yeah. I put a lot of thought in that. Enjoyed that. Yeah. Yeah. They would make them like these little hearts out of Manila folders and then they stapled them and then all the kids, they would have them up in the room and each kid would put their own little Valentine and then they come home with this big stack. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Some of them might include a. a sucker, but it was more the little cards. Yeah, I guess we have a tradition of just a nice meal, whether that's at home or out. I don't think we've ever, like, discussed that this is a tradition, but usually we make a point to do that every Valentine's. I would like to maybe, as we progress more in our marriage and you know get a little more established in our adult life and have money I would like to do more holiday traditions. Well, that's for Valentine's Day or Christmas or whatever. Yes I love the idea of traditions every year. I do too. Yes I've been trying to kind of establish some of those throughout the years. I just think there it's So nostalgic like, you know, I know every Christmas morning. We're doing a brunch. Yeah Period. We never miss a bacon mimosa, pancake, something, brunch. Alright, so our next question that we ask people is what your ideal Valentine's Day would look like. Oh, this is interesting. And this is where it gets interesting. So forty eight 80 percent desired a romantic getaway, which is very interesting because that was the most picked answer, but when we ask people how they spend their Valentines, only 4 percent said a weekend getaway. So most people would like to have that. Yeah. But it's not, necessarily realistic. I'm guessing it's one, too expensive, and two, just like hard to incorporate in a very busy life. Yeah, so what do you have to do if something like that's going on? Shoot, I guess you gotta make more money, you gotta save up, or you just gotta be okay. You gotta manage your expectations! Yes! Ding ding ding! I was like, this feels like a quiz I'm about to get wrong. Yeah, yeah, I just, she got one point. that is, that's very interesting. okay. I'm going to ask you this one. Fantasy versus reality. It's the perfect Valentine's Day. I think when I was younger, it was more of like an idealistic rom com dream, like I want to have this super nice getaway, I want my partner or husband or whatever to surprise me with like this super amazing gift, but now I know that one that's not realistic because we don't have a lot of money and we're super busy. Not that that couldn't happen in the future, but definitely I feel like I would never expect it to happen on every valentine's day. Yeah I think you have to find a way to celebrate love while being realistic with your lifestyle and the resources you have. Okay, this is the segment I was most excited for. we asked, last question of our survey, for people to describe their partner. And that's either like, give a bunch of adjectives or And we have both sides of the spectrum in the responses, but we wanted to highlight five of the answers that we really thought were cute because this is a celebration of love. And I mean, even if it's not a love in our life or a love in our relationship, I think we can celebrate love in other people's lives as well. So we're going to read off some of our favorite submitted responses and some of them were so cute. Oh man, this first one is very best friend, protector, funny. And the best dad to our kids. That's the best. Well, I wouldn't know, but you always told me that you love Jim so much more after seeing him be a dad. Oh, oh, it's like another level of love that you don't really even, can't really comprehend. Alright, this next one is the longest one we got. I don't know who wrote it. So, whoever their partner is, you're lucky. Very. stunning, brilliant, kind hearted, short. Queen? Breathtaking? I believe that everyone should get to have as amazing of a fiance as I do. She gives me the space to process while also supporting me. She makes me feel heard while encouraging me to hear myself and feel my feelings. She loves unconditionally while also voicing her needs instead of letting them pile up. I never understood what it meant to say that someone is easy to love until I met her. That's precious. if your partner doesn't Talk about you like that. Ladies, get you a new man. You best get on that training plan. Well, that sounds like a very very cute and healthy relationship. Yeah, I love that we get to celebrate their love. Yes. This next one I'm pretty sure it's talking about my sister. Can I read this one? Yes. Artists Mystic, kind, goofy, bad ankled, incredibly strong, annoyingly talented, so sexy, and the absolute most awkward dancer. That is her. It's gotta be. Well, I think that's my sister's boyfriend that submitted the response. Yes. Yes. Well done, sir. Kari, you're adorable. Okay. Yes, we love you, Kari. So then this one was the most perfect partner we can camp in the snow or have a fancy dinner, and it's all perfect She is my best everything This is funny this next one. Oh the next one competitive like me smart handsome super sweet puts effort in every day Extremely thoughtful super caring to me acts of service guy. Okay. So for our next one, we actually asked our husbands the same question. Just the last one. And we're going to read what they said to each other. And we haven't seen what our husbands said about us. Again, the question was. What words best describe your partner? And this is what Wes said. Wrote to me, the most loving partner, best teammate one could ever have, goofy, funny, but beautiful and elegant. Oh. Elegance. He thinks I'm elegant? Yes, he definitely. That was really sweet. I'm gonna have to give him a big kiss on the lips later. He keeps those earphones in too long, thinks you're elegant. I thought he would for sure find out that I'm absolutely not elegant, but I'm extremely flattered that he thinks I am. Yeah. Alright, here's what Jim said about you. You're like, give it, give me more. Okay. She's my energizer bunny that sweeps my life with prayer and needed encouragement on occasion. Ronnie fills me with hugs and applauded my accomplishments. Through our 30 plus years together, God has used us to impact others and build two small boys into men, blessed with great life partners. Love you, my helpmate and greatest lover of all time. Thank you. Thank you, Jim. Better be nice to them the rest of the day. Yeah, yeah. We'll make some smash burgers tonight. About to smash that burger. Anyways, bye bye. So, before we get to our closing, we just wanted to discuss how we can take Valentine's just beyond romantic love and give you some ideas, on how to celebrate love in the form of friendship, family, and even self love. we have, a little bit of tips and ideas for you on how to celebrate. even not just your romantic partner. So if you want to celebrate friendship some things you could do is host or set up a galentines or and this is the first time i've heard of this palentines for the guys for the guys i just have a hard time imagining like hey you want to do a palentines You know when I see a goofy like a dog with big old long ears like Anyways, if you do something like this with your friends, you could host a brunch have a movie night a game night something along those lines even Could be more low key than that. Just celebrate your friendship, spend time together, let each other know how much you appreciate each other. You could also write letters, text, and I guess text would probably be more More likely. Yeah. I don't know anyone that writes letters because you can just text somebody, but you could, again, remind them of the impact they have in your life and show appreciation that way. Or it could just be a random act of kindness, whether that's A small coffee to brighten their day or just any kind of small thoughtful gift. Yeah, just think about what your friend's like and it could be so small like a literally a four dollar coffee. Bam Your friend loves coffee. She'll be like, oh, that's so nice. She thought of me Yeah, and then you could actually pass that on even to strangers. Yeah, so uh random acts of kindness on valentine's day like Maybe we should do something like in that future where we do valentine's day with generational tea where we just go give Yeah. Strangers. Yeah. Or pay, pay for the person behind you's order. Yeah. At the drive thru. Yeah, you might want to, you know, you could, how much is it? Look and see how many people are in the vehicle. Is it like a two burger or 65? Okay, half of that. that's funny. Another love is family love. Quality time, family dinner, baking together, game nights. I love games and playing cards. And so that sounds great to me. and also you can get those little memory sharing, those little photo books. My parents loved the ones I did a long time ago. I need to get some more of those done. I feel like sometimes when I go home to Colorado, well, I don't get to see my family as much, so it's probably more nostalgic, but we love, like, going through old family videos or family photos, because that just, makes you start reminiscing and talking about, past times and appreciating all the good times, and I think that can just bring a whole nother level of appreciation of your family to the present. Love that. Love that. self love. We've talked about that. A little bit. how do you feel about going to the movie alone? It feels weird, but I think I need to do it. Yeah, I I've done it a couple of times and it does feel a little weird. It's good. It's better if you like go to a matinee or something where it's not really that crowded anyways. Um, get there early if you want to, so you can be hiding down in your seat. Yes. You pull your hoodie up. That's a cannot move. Don't hide. No, don't hide. But, yeah, or even going out to eat by yourself and not just eating in the car, like getting out, going into the Olive Garden or wherever you are, ordering your meal, enjoying it. I feel like that's so, like, not shamed, but people are like, Oh, you're eating by yourself? Yes! Which is so stupid, because like, yeah, I like myself. I'm gonna take myself out. Just because I don't have someone to go with doesn't mean I can't go enjoy a movie or go enjoy a meal. Yeah! I'm committing! I'm gonna go see a movie by myself. Weston, you're not allowed to come with me. That's right. That's right. Well, and I think a lot of that is just peer pressure. It is. It is also, I think, it is very much an American way of doing things and thinking for sure. I really think so. Another form of self love that you can do on Valentine's Day or, you know, any other day as well. Journaling and affirmations, so reflect on what you love about yourself and set positive intentions. It's definitely a form of self care. It might not be as fun as, like, taking yourself out for a favorite meal or a spa day or whatever, but it's still very positive and it's a way to show love to yourself. And you can also engage in hobbies or passions that you enjoy, so carve some time out. Do something that brings you joy. Dancing, reading, painting, karaoke. I don't know. Yeah. Whatever you want to do. That can also be self love is to set time in your busy schedule to indulge in things you know will make you happy. Yes. I love that. What she said. Oh, this is a good one. This is a good one. So our what she said is from Elizabeth Barrett Browning and she was actually an English poet of the Victorian era. And she said, I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. Mm, that's a good one. I love that, and not just in terms of romantic love, because love is definitely a It's a very powerful transformative force that can unite two people, romantically, anything like that. And if it's a healthy relationship, obviously, it's going to bring out the best in you. And that's something that should be celebrated. Yeah, I have some friends that make me want to be a better person. Like, they inspire me to be a better Christian, to be a better wife, to be just a better citizen. And I like to keep those people around, just to keep challenging me. Yeah. And love is definitely something worth celebrating, whether it's on Valentine's or any day of the year. I hope what you take from this episode is not only a celebration of love, but a reminder to celebrate in a way that feels right for you. Yes. And we'd like to challenge you all this week to take yourself on a date, whether that be, a nice fancy cup of coffee, not just the regular pour over or whatever, like upgrade the coffee order, and then just take time to be alone, or go to a movie. a lot of times people just have a hard time sitting with themselves. usually I feel like when they're avoiding something, or they're in conflict with themselves. Yeah. At least for me. That's when I hate, hate alone time the most, is when I know, Things are going to come up when I'm alone. I'm going to have to deal with something, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. Thoughts are going one way, but then what you can do with that is you can begin to start training yourself to not respond in that way. You know, it's all, we're all on a, we're all on a continuum, well, I mean, if you think about it, the longest relationship you're ever going to have in your life is the one with yourself. And I think we need to treat it with more care, like as much time and energy and thought we give into relationships with others. We also need to view the relationship with ourselves as the same, which is hard to do. And I feel like we're taught not to be selfish, which is a very good thing. Be selfless, but also be selfish in a way that you're preserving and taking care of the relationship with yourself. Right, right. You guys, plan yourself a little date with yourself, take care. Send us a selfie while you're doing it. We want to see it. Yeah, that'd be great. And dang it, we're going to do it too. So, you're probably going to see me on the story of the movies by myself. Okay, sounds good. But, thank you so much for listening. We're so happy you're here. Reminder to go check out our socials. Leave us a review, please. We would really appreciate it. And go check out our other episodes. We've got a lot of good stuff. And we're done! And that's the tea!