Our V-Day

picture taken over Christmas, definitely not last night

Turns out we were both sick for Valentine's day. 

We spent the evening snuggled up in a pile of blankets and each other.

Ryan picked us up some tomato and cauliflower soups from Kneaders with a loaf of fresh bread.

And we even had some chocolate strawberries for dessert.

 It was low key but lovely.

And afforded us the opportunity to catch up on some of our Hulu shows. 

It still surprises me how much I can love staying in and doing nothing with him.

Even with both of us sick as dogs.

Valentines Day

Ryan is sick. 

Kinda' disappointing and lame on Valentines Day.

So I've been trying to focus on all the love and fun we've had on Valentine's Day of years past.

here. here. here. here. here. here.

And by reliving our first Valentine's Day together seven years ago.

We both wanted to plan a surprise so we each took a day to plan our own thing to avoid any overlap, for example, both planning a surprise dinner or breakfast or something.  

I took the day before V-day, and he got the real day.

Mine consisted of a candlelight lobster dinner in the basketball court below our soon to be first home.

(This makes sense only once you understand I was nannying for a family and lived in their guest house which was perched above a huge garage turned into a basketball court.)

It was the first time either of us tried lobster.

We both determined we prefer crab.

 And then we shot some hoops in what I remember being a rather competitive game of one on one. 

For gifts I bought him some snorkel gear and other fun beach stuff to be used on our upcoming hawaiian honeymoon.

Then he blew me out of the water the following night with rose petal candlelit pathways up the stairs, and bouquets of flowers, and Chinese food ordered in, and loads more candles that were making it feel all sorts of romantic in our tiny dining room.

His gift was a custom frame with our wedding invitation which now hangs proudly in our dining room.

And when I went to bed later that night I also found some more sneaky flowers on my nightstand and a heart shaped box of chocolates hiding beneath my pillow. 

And I knew he was a keeper!

Because seriously, how much time and planning did that all take?

I don't think we have any pictures of either of these nights. 

I wish we did. 

Valentines Day - Feb 15th

We decided to push our Valentines celebration back a day. 

(Ryan worked late and I nursed a sore throat on the actual holiday.)

So last night was our romantic fondue for two. 

We ate and laughed and talked from the comfort of our living room floor.

And good heavens, if it wasn't the best fondue I have ever tasted!

Every morsel was heavenly.

And clearly we had way too much food so we now have tons of leftovers, and they are making a come back as both lunch and dinner today - lucky us!

Our favorite was some of the unlikelies: apples & steak in the swiss cheese fondue.

Just look at the melty-ness!

Nothing can be this melty and not also be equally delicious, I am fairly certain on this point.

Also making an appearance in the day was a darling little V-day package from my mother. (thank you mother!)

Some little blooms left over from our spa day.

A red heart balloon & the tickets I got Ryan for a ride we'll be taking come our anniversary in March. 

And the massage he secretly got me even though it was meant to be a low-key and inexpensive year for gifts. 

He is such a turkey that way, but I secretly love it!

Our bulletin board with a few valentines-y additions.

Including the only mildly worse for wear heart banner from last year. 

Next time you make chocolate fondue, promise me you will try this recipe: (adapted from here - and so good it will make you cry.)

2 cups guittard milk chocolate chips 

(It absolutely has to be guittard! These are the superhero, superhuman, hybrid, superpower brand of chocolate chips that will make you feel like you have been wasting your life if you are using anything else. Trust me on this, I have spent my life tasting chocolate.)

1 cup cream

1 t sugar

1 t postum (or powdered coffee for coffee drinkers)

(This won't make it taste coffee flavored, just ultra rich and decadent and sinful, and all proper chocolate tastes sinful!)

1 t vanilla - the good stuff. 

Heat the cream first on low heat, melt in the chocolate, then add everything else once it is as smooth as butter. 

This is especially good when eaten with cream puffs, I assure you.

Spa Night

This night felt like a flashback to high school when getting ready was an event in and of itself.
You know, when you'd invite over girlfriends, play music, and there would be tons of product everywhere, and never enough mirrors, and overall chaos - but in the very best kind of way.
And it always turned out to be even funner than the party or the dance or whatever it was you were getting ready for in the first place. And afterwards you'd all schlep home again and spend the night together talking well into the wee hours of the morning, and this too would trump whatever you had spent the evening doing.
Those conversations about everything and nothing.
That was basically how our galentines spa night played out.
Which begs the question, why are we not doing this more regularly?
Also, the delicious food didn't hurt. 

Post-its are the new love letters

I melted when I saw this giant pixalated-ish post-it message in the stairwell this morning.

I melted even more when I got downstairs and was met with oodles of personalized post-it-note messages stuck to nearly every surface.

All little love notes from my sweetie - such a delightful and unexpected surprise!

I made my way through the house smiling, laughing -- and at some point I might have even been crying -- but then before you know it, smiling and laughing again.

Happy start to the day indeed!

On a side note, I think we may be out of post-its.

Galentines Day

Yeah, it's a thing.

It's kind of like Valentines day, but for the girls.
Here, I'll just let Leslie Knope explain.

And just like Leslie Knope, I think it should be a national holiday.
Not enough days to celebrate friendship if you ask me.
Although I have always been of the mind that V-day is a celebration of all loves, including that of the friendship-y kind.
But this year we are making it officially official!
So, happy galantines day all!
We will be commemorating with at-home spa treatments and tasty edibles.

Valentines Day 2011

So, besides this,

Valentines day also brought with it some sweets,

some hearts,

and of course some flowers!

Ryan is still resisting, but these beauties are definitely coming with us on our journey tomorrow. 

Yep, in the car! I am absolutely enjoying these babies for as long as possible!

a happy day.

a valentine that made me smile yesterday.

and some flowers that keep making me smile today.

the best part of every holiday

is sugar cookies!

(and yes, valentines day is most definitely a holiday.)

is there any celebration where these cookies don't make an appearance?

but sugar cookies and i have a complicated history.

a true love/hate relationship.

i literally hate how much i loove these little guys.

so much so that i usually avoid them.

indeed, this is my first time in over 8 years actually making them.

and i took precautionary measures.

we baked, frosted, packaged, and delivered within hours to avoid temptation.

only saving 4 delectables for our own consumption.

we're hoping they make it until after lunch.

(think hugs and kisses, not tic-tac-toe)

wishing you all a very

sweet valentines day weekend!

Music, Dancing, Romance & . . . Scrabble?

Beautiful flowers, purchased and arranged by Ryan, look so lovely they should be a permanent fixture on our entry-way table. I'll have to let him know that!

Valentines Day has a lot of cynics. But despite frequent criticism, I cannot relinquish this holiday as one of my favorites. My mom always makes celebrations special, and this annual salutation to red & pink is no exception. Growing up this was not just a celebration for lovers, but for all who were loved.

Unexpected treats, goodies, and heart-felt letters of appreciation always awaited us in varying forms. Perhaps a treat bag waiting beside our breakfast plates, or a valentine’s basket hanging on our doorknobs after school, or a celebratory box resting atop our pillows when we went to bed at night. One year there was a raspberry frosted cake adorned with cinnamon hearts aplenty to follow a carefully prepared dinner of love. This was perhaps my favorite year.

So Valentines Day remains a special holiday which will always be observed with fond remembrance. It ranks so highly that in years past Ryan and I have had to delegate two days to celebration. The first day gave him the opportunity to plan something fun, and the second was my turn to treat him to surprises. We decided this extravagance was perhaps a bit much, and this year we commemorated it all in a single day.

Naturally, the day was still split as I took the morning to make him a special breakfast, and he made the arrangements for a romantic evening of dinner and dancing.

Raspberry German pancakes with homemade almond syrup and freshly whipped cream is one of our all-time favorite breakfasts.

I adapted this recipe to suite my raspberry & almond affinity, & this time we made them in large muffin tins which add even more puff. Translation: much more delicious!

Orange juice, Turkey bacon, and postum espresso's topped with cream complete the meal perfection. Usually the raspberries are baked in the batter, but since I forgot we served them on top. Delicious both ways!

Our romantic evening was spent at the Skyroom Jazz night, where we enjoyed a delicious dinner (Ryan - pepper crusted sirloin, Leah - pistachio chicken) Live Jazz, and tons of dancing. So much fun we even spent another hour dancing in our room to Jazzy music on our ipod, and are contemplating dance lessons. (Ryan's idea) Despite his face below indicating otherwise, we both had a grand time! I know it's Valentines, but don't we look like Christmas?

Not only were we dancing in our room, but we actually brought along our travel scrabble game, and enjoyed a rousing and competitive game.

Is bringing scrabble to our romantic getaway a sign of graduating from the newlywed stage? If it is, I'm happy to graduate, we had a blast! Here's the final game board. One blatantly obvious non-word slipped past me on Ryan's turn, can you spot it?