January 2009 – ECARD

Origins of Valentine’s Day

St. Valentine’s Day may well be believed to be a Western Civilization holiday, commercially created by candy makers and florists alike. But in actuality, St. Valentine’s Day has been celebrated for ages, since around 300AD. There are quite a few legends of lore that tell the tale of St. Valentine and his quest to protect the sanctity of marriage and the rights of lovers.

A popular legend has St. Valentine as a Roman Catholic Priest in the 3rd century AD, who secretly performed forbidden marriage rites, much to the displeasure of the Emperor at the time. He was caught and sentenced to death, and as legend has it, he died sometime in the middle of February.

Another legend tells the tale of St. Valentine imprisoned to be put to death for angering the Romans, all the while being visited by the enamored daughter of the prison warden. St. Valentine fell in love with her, and before being put to death, sent her a love note signed: “From your Valentine”.

Whichever legend holds the truth or if the real story is something else all together, what matters most is that St. Valentine was to the world a figure of romance and heroism, and was someone to be celebrated. February 14th could have been chosen to commemorate St. Valentine because it was his final day, or because the French thought it marked the beginning of the bird mating season; either way February 14th is a day for romance, for young lovers and old lovers, those who are married and those who are single. He gave the world hope and an ideal to achieve. Whatever legend you believe, St. Valentine is someone to be remembered, so this year on Valentine’s Day, do what St. Valentine would have done and send your loved one a love note. The most romantic ones can be found here at GotFreeCards.com. “Let live and let love!”

Valentine Ecards

Valentine’s Day is all about hearts, hearts and more hearts. Hearts as in the shape of the candle my husband got for me two years ago, and hearts as in the shape of the small ice-cream cake my dad always gets for my mom on Valentine’s Day. When I was a kid, my dad would get each of us our very own ice-cream cake, our very own dessert that we could eat all at once, or a little bit each day. I was and still am an all-or-nothing kind of gall when it comes to dessert, so mine would be gone by February 16th at the latest. My sister, on the other hand, would torture me, unintentionally she says, by taking one bite a day so that her cake lasted well into March.

On Valentine’s Day, I still think back fondly to my childhood and the fun we had sharing the love, even if the sharing didn’t involve our ice-cream cakes. But we knew we were lucky to have one another, and this Valentine’s I want to make sure I don’t forget to send e-cards to my family. Because Valentine’s Day shouldn’t just be about your significant other, it should be about all of your special loved ones. I am glad I have GotFreeCards.com to help me spread the love, for even though there are many I want to send e-cards to, here at GotFreeCards every card is FREE! So this Valentine’s Day, spread the love and send valentine e-cards to everyone you care about!

Who needs Valentine’s Day anyway?

Before you shoot me, let me explain. I am not against love or expressing love or any such thing. In fact, I look forward to Valentine’s day as much as anyone else. (Mostly because I like to catch all the mushy movies on TV, but that’s a different story!) But, think about it. Who really benefits the most from Valentine’s Day?

It’s not the people who have been in love with each other for years. They already know how much they love one another. It’s not the newly weds. They are already in love and have just sealed it with wedding vows. The new lovers? Nope. They are too starry eyed to think about everlasting love and such things at the moment.

You may not want to admit it to yourself, but the ones who benefit the most from Valentine’s Day are businesses, stores, greeting card companies. There, I said it.

Well, let’s say Valentine’s Day is a day to express one’s love for a special someone – not that you need one specific day to do so, but that’s another subject, again. So where do cavity-forming chocolates, environment-unfriendly greeting cards and budget-breaking gifts come into play? Since when has love become a commodity? Why do we need material expression to reinforce the most intangible, powerful and life-giving force on earth? Love is after all, that which cannot be measured, quantified, defined, compared or forgotten, isn’t it? So, how come we have reduced it to something that can be expressed with a box of candies or a bottle of perfume, even if they are the finest?

I just don’t get it. To me, the most beautiful expressions of love are those that are known to and shared only between the two people concerned. Maybe an understanding smile, a meaningful glance, a shoulder rub, a kiss, a timely hug, a hot cup of cocoa when it’s most needed, a concerned phone call, a tight embrace…

Maybe an occasional love note or greeting card would be nice. But to be honest, when I see aisles and aisles of the same stuff in every store – heart-shaped pillows and teddy bears and chocolates – and I realize that at least a thousand other women will be getting the very same thing from their ‘one’, I pretty much lose interest in those gifts. They hold no meaning, no special place in my heart.

What I value most is the unique way in which two people express their love for each other, to each other. Not just on Valentine’s Day but all through their lives. Those special moments, which like our free ecards are personal and unique.

That’s what I call the perfect gift!

So, this Valentine’s Day (and every day), don’t forget to personalize your expression of love. Buying a gift or a greeting card is easy. But to make your expression special, make it your own. After all, isn’t that what you love about each other?

What is Valentine’s Day

When I met my husband, I was excited for February and our very first Valentine’s Day. I was also quite nervous as streams of questions traveled through my head. What should I get him? What will he get me? Does he know it is Valentine’s Day? Should I remind him? Do I make dinner reservations or does he? I decided the best way to handle my nerves was to talk about it openly with him and ask him what he wanted to do and what our budget was for gifts. So romantic, I know! His answer: “Oh, Valentine’s Day is my brother’s birthday, so we’ll have dinner at my parents’ house to celebrate.”

I was of course, devastated, and thought that if I became serious with this man, that the rest of my

Valentine’s Day dates would be spent with his parents! After a few years of Valentine’s dinners with my in-laws, I started to see the benefits and the joys to having a Valentine’s celebration with family. Not only did we never have to make dinner reservations at an overbooked and overpriced restaurant, we got to enjoy the company of loved ones at the same time and same place each year, to celebrate love and birthdays. Valentine’s Day shouldn’t be about the stress of what gift to get and what restaurant to eat at. It should be about simple things like love and good company. Don’t let your loved ones forget it, send them Free ecards from GotFreeCards.com for Valentine’s day, remind them what February 14th is all about.

Valentine Ecards for my husband

If you have popped in to any store lately, you are well aware that Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. There are big red candy boxes on the first aisle when you walk in, teddy bears for sale holding red hearts and red balloons, and even boxers adorned with little cupids for sale. And even though all of the merchandise is fun and festive and would make anyone smile, the thought of purchasing anything for Valentine’s Day still stresses me out!

I want to make sure that the gift for my husband is perfect, that it is not too corny, but also not too UN-corny. Flowers are not for my husband, and he doesn’t eat sweets, so I tend to go for the more home-made gifts. One year I made him a gift card that was good for things like a back rub, or breakfast in bed, and another year I had the kids make him a card with their picture in it. So this year, we’re going to do that again, with the help of GotFreeCards.com. I am going to create FREE printable cards at GotFreeCards.com, with pictures of me and my kids and my own corny sentiments, print it out, and give it to my husband for Valentine’s Day. It will be the perfect gift, with the perfect amount of Valentine’s Day corniness.

Free Ecards Add Photos

Gotfreecards.com offers a lot of free animated e-cards, but what if you want to personalize things a bit?

You can easily add photos to most e-cards on the site; and of course, it’s free. Just go to gotfreecards.com, and pick your favorite card.

After you click on the card and it’s finished loading, click “Play” to start the animation. See in the bottom right-hand side of the card, where a button says, “Click to add photo and voice”? You guessed it: click!

You’ll be taken to a screen with a stock-photo near the top of the page, and below that there’s a button that says, “Upload Image.” Yup: click it, too.

After clicking through the user agreement, basically saying you agree not to do anything obscene or offensive to the person you’re sending the card to, you’re taken to a file-upload browser. Just scan through your files and find the picture you want to use, and click “Open”. You’re back on the main page now, and that stock photo will be replaced by the picture you’ve chosen.

Then just proceed in the same way you would with any other card, by filling out the information for the person you’re sending the card to, at the bottom of the page. When you’re done, you can click “Preview” to see your card. Basically, the card will play, just as it normally would, but after the animation your chosen image will be displayed, as well. And now, just click “Send,” and you’re done!

Daily Quotes

I have a set schedule of things I want to do, and I do my best to hold to that schedule. For example, every morning, while waiting for my coffee to brew, I sit outside (as long as the weather cooperates) and read through some reference materials. Currently, I have what’s called an “Intellectual Devotional,” a book which has, for each day of the year, a short history lesson, in all manners of disciplines (this morning I learned a bit about Alexander the Great’s rise to Power. The reason I do this isn’t is because it’s said that our minds are most open to accumulating knowledge shortly after we wake up. I figure that means if I read these materials in the morning, I’m more likely to hold onto the knowledge.

Something I recently added to the morning regimen are the “Famous Quotes” on gotfreecards.com. Every morning, after I’m done with the day’s history lesson, I go to gotfreecards.com, click on “Famous Quotes” at the top of the page, and I’m taken to a daily-indexed page of great things that have been said by great people throughout history. If one particularly strikes me, I write it down in a small notebook I carry around. There are new entries added nearly every day, and, looking to the left of the page, you’ll see you can even search based on author or subject. You should give it a try, because a little knowledge can go a long way.

Birthday Reminders

So you’re kind-hearted enough to remember friends and loved ones on their birthdays and other holidays, and you’re frugal and sensible enough to save your money in doing so by using gotfreecards.com, but how do you keep it all straight? How do you make sure, for example, that you remember to send next-door-neighbor Joe an e-card for his birthday in February, but don’t forget to do the same for classmate Jane on her anniversary?

Holidays are easy to keep straight—most of them fall on the same day every year, and most stores and television stations are kind enough to constantly remind us, weeks in advance, that Christmas / Valentine’s Day / Halloween is coming. But they don’t exactly do the same thing for Joe’s birthday or Jane’s anniversary, do they?

To keep these lesser-advertised but not-less-important days organized, try the “Event Reminder” on gotfreecards.com.

Just go to the homepage—gotfreecards.com—and click on the “Event Reminder” button at the top of the page. This brings a screen up where you can type in your name, the name of the event you want remembered, and any personalized notes you want to add in regards to the event. Then, just select when you want to be reminded (the day, the day before, etc.) and enter your e-mail address. Gotfreecards.com will then, at absolutely no charge and with no obligations required on your end, e-mail you a reminder of the big day at the time you specify. It’s that simple!