Saturday, February 14, 2009

Valentine's Day Tradition

In our 15 years together, Rich and i have 'celebrated' Valentine's Day precisely once. I think we went out to an Italian restaurant in 1995. Those were the days.

But we've realized this past couple of years that we don't celebrate much... not birthdays, not Christmas, not anniversaries, not big occasions or achievements. We've been wanting to perhaps change that by instituting some Oliver-Campbell traditions. See, we don't have traditions, either. With Poppet on the way we both feel all the more compelled to make up some 'traditions', Since neither of us is terribly romantic we tried to think of something for Valentine's day which would be neither too mushy nor too commercial... Our solution? To make (vegan) fairycakes (cupcakes for you American folk) for our dear friends... and us.

We made them together... Rich was in charge of the icing. He ran out of powdered sugar and thought that he could get away with not adding enough. I pointed out - after a little taster - that his butterscotch icing tasted like sweet margarine/butter and convinced him to make the effort to buy more sugar. Thankfully he did.

We had lots of making them, and of course we think about how next year we'll have a 8 month old helping us!!! Blimey.

A Valentine's Day 'Tradition' in (lots lots of) photos....















14 comments:

  1. Oh, what a lovely tradition! I am so excited about getting our fairycakes! I'll make sure not to give Sage any sweets before we see you tomorrow ;-).

    I think we should take a lesson from you. We're the same way, too cynical for our own good. Before Sage was born and learned what making valentines was all about, we'd simply greet one another with a snide "happy compulsory heterosexuality day!" and forget all about it. I think making up your own meaningful traditions is a lovely thing to do (especially if it involves baked goods).

    As for next year? No problem! You'll just do the same thing while wearing little Gertrude or Buckie in a sling, going about your business. It's the year after that that things might get a little messy!

    xo
    Jen

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a lovely new tradition!! Matthias and I have tried to implement traditions as a couple too...I can't think of anything that's stuck so far. In some ways I love that freedom, but I imagine when it's poppet-time for us I'll want some Eder ways of our own too.
    love,
    ash

    ReplyDelete
  3. so sweet :)
    what more can i say?

    ReplyDelete
  4. yummy yummy yummy. How about celebrating birthdays of the odd dead theorist you love? That's how sad I am.

    I've made vegan chocolate brownies two nights in a row. They all get gobbled up immediately...

    I've finally caught up!

    ReplyDelete
  5. aw how lovely to get to make up new traditions. and you two look so cute all domesticated and what not.

    love lucy x

    ReplyDelete
  6. Indeed they WERE yummy! Thank you!

    It was so wonderful to see you both today.

    xo
    Jen and Sage

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Jen, it was just lovely seeing you and Sage today. So glad that we made it. I'd have been kicking myself had I moped at home. And of course Sage is endlessly entertaining. You won't have noted it, I don't think, but she kept on looking at me and grinning. I felt extremely honoured :)

    I hope you like the fairycakes. I was especially partial to the choco ones!

    I loved to hear, too, that you're starting to embark on your own traditions. We don't really have any inherited ones and so we'll keep experimenting. I have a sense that we may have a lot of 'one time' traditions.... but we're approaching it with some spirit, at least!

    Love, Alex

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ash, that sounds exactly like us... because I can't think of ANYTHING that's stuck. Oh, no, actually, a few years ago some friends gave us Christmas ornaments for our tree - since it's their family tradition - and we've carried that on. But that's about it... I look forward to learning of more Eder traditions and rituals.... :)

    Belinda, I'd love nothing more than to ship some of these treats to Aus!

    Thanks for catching up, Lou! haha, only a sociologist and a theorist could suggest such a tradition. Who do you have in mind? And what might we do to celebrate?! Can't wait to see you!

    Thanks, Lucy! I'm missing an apron... must get one of those to properly look the part. Thanks for stopping by.

    Love, love, love, Alex

    ReplyDelete
  9. ...how odd that Rich didn't use enough sugar. Somehow he strikes me as the type that would heap it in :), and then add a bit more, just because.

    xoxo
    Renate

    ReplyDelete
  10. what about darwin's bday? it's very close to valentine's day as it is, you know....

    you could make little cakes shaped like galapagos finches.

    ha.
    xo
    fia

    ReplyDelete
  11. B and I have tried to start more traditions too, now that we have 'lil C. Loved the photos, glad you had a fun time.

    xo
    Brie

    PS I realllly like your shirt. :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Alex,

    I *love* the photos! And what a nice heap of cupcakes (sorry, I'm too American to say "fairycakes).
    Sometimes it seems that M. and I are far too "new" at being together to have traditions, but the one that we do have is that we don't give each other X-mas presents, but we go kind of crazy for birthdays.
    That's not much of a tradition, I suppose, but it's nice because X-mas is about the family and birthdays are about US. We may have traditions now that we have dogs!

    ReplyDelete
  13. aha, ren, you see he'd run out of the powdered sugar. Fortunately for everyone he went and bought some more!

    Thanks, Brie! it's my favourite maternity top! I am buying sizes up as they make maternity clothing, it seems, rather tight. I guess it's to emphasize the bumps, etc. But I am a little modest about these things... Would to love to know more about your traditions!

    Aw, kristina, we have some traditions with the boys, too. Though we tend to forget them!! More precisely we tend to go through 'periods' where we take them to a specific trail a lot. Oh, you must post some pictures of your puppies, too!!

    Oy. I better run to class.

    ReplyDelete
  14. The fairycakes, and you both, look WONDERFUL

    and now I am hungry. xoxoxo

    ReplyDelete