Happy Valentine’s Day

So, in staying true to the “purpose” of my blog, I have two thoughts to share on Valentine’s Day regarding building your marriage.

Thought #1:

Celebrate the Past!

My husband and I rarely make a big “to-do” about holidays, particularly Valentine’s Day, and while we still didn’t go overboard this year, we celebrated. And I’m certainly glad we did…allow me to explain.

We did the math and it was our 10 year anniversary celebrating Valentine’s Day together this year. So, our very first romantic Valentine’s date? Kentucky Fried Chicken my friends!! Ha! My poor, adorable husband…we’d only been dating about 2 weeks when we celebrated our first Valentine’s Day, and in his defense, he did plan a very romantic cracker and cheese scenario at the park, where he even played guitar. But, once we wrapped things up there, around 5:30 or 6 in the evening, he casually said, “Where would you like to go to dinner?”

*Ahem*…sorry, you don’t just show up for dinner somewhere on Valentine’s evening!! hehe So, we ended up at KFC. The reason I tell you this, is to help you understand our celebration THIS year.

That’s right ladies (and gentlemen, although I doubt there are any reading this)…we celebrated in STYLE at KFC! I texted my husband this clue to where we would be celebrating:KEN + TUCK (from Bug’s Life…Tuck and Roll?) + E     (the letter e in sign language)

            FRY (from Futurama) + ED (from the cartoon Ed, Edd, & Eddy)

CHICK + IN 

I arrived before him and decorated the table: I even made “custom” conversation hearts with words significant to us (of course, the really significant ones you can’t see here, but…oh well): We had a relaxing dinner with our son included. =) 

Thought #2:

Celebrate…with time alone!

IF you have kids…this is crucial. This was all we were planning to do for Valentine’s Day, until the stars aligned and I received a phone call from my in-laws offering to babysit Sunday evening (the night before Valentine’s Day), and I received an e-mail from Sienna (a local restaurant in El Dorado Hills) with their Valentine menu, stating that they still had reservations open.

Cue….Hallelujah music!

I took a hint and made reservations. THEN…here’s the clincher.  The in-laws took them to THEIR house and watched him overnight for us!! Look at how ecstatic our son was to go spend the night with Grandma and Grandpa: Here’s how our “us” evening went…

Ryan presented me with his gift (prepare for husband bragging…which is also a marriage builder ladies,                R-E-S-P-E-C-T if you don’t know the secret!) He gave me a gift card for dance lessons after baby comes. I’ve been wanting to take ballroom lessons, mmm, basically since we got married. So, HUGELY exciting!

Then, we watched the A-Team (Ryan’s joy, but entertaining I must admit).

Romantic dinner at Sienna. Then, we went home and enjoyed watching Predators as loud as we wanted, because we had no kid in the house!!

So, to sum it up…even though Valentine’s Day IS the most contrived holiday of them all…take time to dote on the one you love. It doesn’t have to be ON the day, but celebrate somehow!