A Day (or so) of Love

Ah, Valentine's Day...a day to celebrate those you love, and of course eat lots of chocolate :-) But for Dan and I, Valentine's Day also brings with it lots of wonderful memories of our very first (official) date which took place way back (okay, 4 years ago) in 2004 when he asked me to go with him to the Ballroom Dance at NWC. In fact, it was so long ago that neither of us had a digital camera back then so I can't even throw up a fun picture from that night for this post - wow, we must be getting old (okay, now I'm being fecicious...)! Here's a pic from the lessons a year or two later:

Okay, so moving on...this year we talked about it several times and really had decided on not doing much for V-Day. Neither of us really felt like fighting the crazies here in Nashville who would be willing to wait in line for hours for a nice meal I could probably fix in less time, so I thought I'd just make a "fancy" dinner and we'd be all set. But Dan insisted that he wanted to make dinner for me, and I finally agreed. So I went to bed on Valentine's Eve (that works, right?), reminding myself to make a card in the morning so I'd have something for my dear husband, and hoping we might even look through a photo album from our first year together and reminisce for the evening. Then I woke up to this:

Isn't he sweet?! I cracked up when my second pancake was added, and rather than a heart I got Mickey Mouse! I guess he messed up a little and thought he'd just be creative :-) They both tasted pretty good to me!

So I went off to work with a full belly and anticipation of what the evening would bring. After a busy day with the Dove Press Conference, I finally got home and opened the door fully expecting to be met with a wall of delicious smells. Instead, Dan stood grinning mischeviously in the kitchen with no food (or smells) in sight, and this on the counter:

Instead of cooking, he surprised me by taking me to our favorite Mexican restaurant in all of Nashville! So we dressed up (a little - nothing too fancy) and headed out, and when we arrived we were seated right away (apparently Mexican isn't the cuisine of choice on V-Day). And after we gorged ourselves on a delicious meal involving WAY too much cheese (or is there even such a thing as too much cheese?), we headed back to our cozy apartment, cuddled up on the couch, and watched several episodes of "The Office" - what more could a girl possibly ask for?! Oh, and we even got to flip through a few pictures, too.

Feeling completely spoiled, I decided to return a little of the favor on Saturday and cooked Dan a meal I knew he'd love: Steak (which we never have), garlic mashed potatoes (complete with 4 heads of roasted garlic), some yummy vegetables (zucchini & egg plant), and some sourdough garlic bread.

Oh, and I topped it off with a chocolate pie! He was one very happy boy :-)

So there you have it - our Valentine's Day extravaganza(s)! It's been a lovely weekend, and I'm so thankful to have had 5 wonderful Valentine's Days with Danny boy...here's to a whole lot more!