Valentine’s Day rolls around on the same day every year. It’s not uncommon for couples to be a bit awkward about it their first year together. Some are choosing to skip the holiday altogether based on its commercialism, but most want to at least acknowledge the holiday in some special way.

Valentine’s Day traditions are wonderfully sweet, filled with flowers or candy, perhaps a little stuffed bear and a dinner for two. But for those who are looking for a little more than just a sweet exchange of small gifts this year, why not venture out into the bold world and bring in the holiday of love with a special day? Celebrating the love or your life (or at least the hopeful love of your life) is certainly worth a vacation day. Why not hang up the work clothes and get into the play clothes for the day?

Sometimes there’s nothing like a little excitement to heighten sexual attraction. For adrenaline junkies there’s quite a bit of juices that flow for the proposal that follows a bungie jump. Sky diving for two can completely add to the excitement and actually only costs about $150 or so per person for this once in a lifetime experience.

I know, it’s February and most of you are sitting inside with a roaring fire and three sweatshirts on thinking the last thing you want to think about is climbing 15,000 feet into the frigid air and feeling the wind chill slice through your jumpsuit. However, there are plenty of snow bound and cold weather activities that can be equally as thrilling and spark a little extra romantic interest.

A private cabin in the woods with plenty of snow for a snowball fight and snowman crafting may not be the thrill ride of your life, but the quality time together can be. An attempt at snowboarding or skiing for the novice winter sports enthusiast can put a little sparkle in the day, or a helicopter drop for the more accomplished winter sports enthusiast can add a new dimension to the day and the time you are spending together.

It’s not quite so important to charge off into the world and bring down the house, but planning a fun and thrilling activity for the day can help put things into perspective. We spend so much of our lives working that often the little things can get side stepped and looked around.

So often we hear the complaint that Valentine’s Day is nothing more than a Hallmark holiday with no real meaning. Is that not our choice? If we choose to celebrate the day by running to Hallmark and picking up a few essentials, wishing each other a happy day and then going about our lives, how have we combated the Hallmark holiday syndrome? If we choose to make the day special and load it with meaning, then it is no longer a commercial holiday.

The way we choose to celebrate the holiday is what determines our attitude toward the holiday. If we want it to be something special to us then all we really need to do is make it special to us by celebrating it in ways that are special to us. I call this “special” logic.

So this year, why not try something new to accentuate the holiday and draw attention to your love for each other and your love of life? By creating the day that suits you best, you add your own meaning to the holiday. All of sudden it becomes not quite so meaningless.