No flowers in this household.

Nothing special for V day for that matter.

We went out to Red Lobster for lunch on our anniversary but that was mostly because we were driving by it and she commented that she didn't know Boise had a Red Lobster (we've eaten in them in other cities). After we were in and sitting I remarked that now we could tell people we had actually done something on our anniversary even if it was nothing much.

We celebrate birthdays, Christmas and Thanksgiving as personal holidays but I skip Women's Day, Anniversary, Valentine's Day and the like. We will take my mother and father out on their respective days but my sons know nothing is particularly expected of them on Fathers' Day by me.

In the US, our Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day picnics are more of group events although when the restaurants offer a good special we'll participate if we like the place and deal enough.

To each their own!

Shame on you Ed!

I have developed a skill that results in me being always single on Feb 14th. Its quite a knack.

Only birthdays gets celebrated in Uzbekistan. I'm completely fine with that. She still has this thing for gift giving, and even when I told her 'we don't do gifts' she still brought a little something for Tony and Elena during our vacation together in Thailand. Of course they gave us nothing as I expected, so now I'm hoping she'll see the western way next time around.

Don, as long as you give gifts only to expect something in return, you do not understand the principle.

Ed and Donhollio

Reading your posts it's very clear how different is your American and Canadian culture from our European one. Obviously you talk about romance in the relationships and with your comments show the opposite. You make it sound like a business partnership!

May I go further and say that probably most of your marriages fail (having seen so many divorces lately) because the romantic element is absent and these marriages were nothing more than a business deal!

I wholeheartedly agree with Shadow.... that when you give presents you don't expect anything in return but Shadow give them the benefit that they are from a very different culture than ours!

Frankly, I don't pay any attention to what Shadow says. It's irrelevant to the life I lead and has rarely been useful as insight or analysis in the past.

Your conclusions indicate you skimmed what I wrote but have no understanding and chose your own interpretations. It's what I expect from the forum crowd lately so my fault for thinking it would be different.

Nobody is trying to be offensive to you. Only made my comments to point out that there is a different perception with you culture than ours!

I did not skimmed through to what you wrote and read it again just in case I misunderstood but my understanding has not changed as I don't think I missed something important.

Please correct me if I am wrong!

Actually you are mistaken.
In my family there is a long standing tradition of sending cards and gifts only to those who have qualified by sending one before. and if you happen to miss one address, do not expect to ever get any cards.

The feeling is mutual.

But that does not mean we can not have a friendly chat about non-life related subject.