7 Months and a Holiday!

Well, Valentines Day this year was exciting for Dan and me. We enjoyed last year as we went and painted pottery and talked about our wedding and those things; but this year was different. We were together, alone and, you know, didn't have to say goodnight when the festivities were over.  It was also seven months since our wedding. That is a big accomplishment and allowed for conversations about how we've learned to love each other better and how we are able to communicate our love in different ways. The butterflies are gone after seven months.  You're comfortable with each other, you can burp, drool, wear your PJs, not shower/shave for a few days...and still love each other!  So for this Valentines Day, we celebrated by me cooking dinner for Dan and exchanging words and small gifts.  I enjoy cooking so much that this was very fun for me, even if my mashed potatoes were not the way I wanted them to be.  First off, the shrimp above is something I've been practicing.  It is, bacon-wrapped shrimp with horseradish, served with an avocado cream.  They were good when they came out of the oven but by the time Dan got home, they were a little dry.

Second course was caesar salad, Dans Favorite. I did not get a picture, thats kinda boring!  The main course was steak, red garlic smashed potatoes and broccoli.  We have been saving our money so we shared one steak, which was better for my stomach anyway.  Dan likes everything I cook...so, he loved the steak. I marinated it in a new sauce called roasted garlic and sesame.  Found it at the Teets (Harris Teeter, our grocery store), it was good.  

 You can see my gifts from Dan, dark chocolates.  I've been obsessing over 71% or more dark chocolate, full of antioxidants and have been eating them A LOT. I found these hidden in the house with sweet notes!

I was glad that Dan didnt go the traditional (aka-boring and uncreative) route

 of red roses. He got creative using my favorite flower- the daisy and spruced it up with pink tulips. After all, tu-lips are better than one :) (cheesy).  He was sweet and they brighten up our apartment in this cold/cloudy winter!

So, after dinner, we walked to Teets to rent a movie. Our first goal was to get "No Reservations" which is a romance about two chefs, right up my ally...but they were all out and so was Blockbuster. We walked around and couldnt find anything that was romantic but not stupid...until I found LOVE STORY. I asked Dan if he'd ever seen the 1970's romance, aka- best love story and soundtrack and romance movie EVER. (the main character's name is Jenny after all) He said 'no' and I insisted.  So we came back, had dessert, which was a piece of chocolate cake for me, a piece of NY cheesecake for him (thanks to Teets bakery, why bake when we cant eat a whole one anyway!) and I made it special with my own strawberry sauce. Delish!  We enjoyed ourselves and though Dan may have fallen asleep during the last few minutes of Jenny's life in Love Story, I cried and laughed at myself for crying.  It was a wonderful evening and inexpensive way to spend our Valentines!

Here is a sign I purchased for Dan/Us for our mantle. It is a short blib of 1 Corinthians 13 and a good reminder of what we had read at our wedding.   A reminder that 

love IS patient, love IS kind, love ALWAYS protects, ALWAYS trusts, ALWAYS hopes and ALWAYS perseveres.