my valentine

I've never been one to hate on Valentine's Day. I've always thought it was a good thing to have a day set apart to celebrate love.

But, I have to admit, Valentine's is SO MUCH BETTER now that I have a special someone to share it with. Jeff and I are pretty good at showing each other that we love each other anyway, but we like to take every opportunity we can to get some cutesy lovin' in. So, enter: Valentine's Day.

While Jeff was at school, I made this for him:

I cut the letters out to spell "I love you" and taped them onto a really long piece of floss (closest thing to a string that I could find). Then, on the back of each letter, I wrote a reason why I love him.

Jeff didn't notice it when he first got home. I had to point it out to him. But, he loved it! Hooray!

Jeff, though, is The Valentine's Master. Last year, for our first Valentine's, he planned a picnic in the park -- complete with flowers, a basket and sparkling cider. It was amazing. It's hard to imagine it could ever be as good as that was. But this year, he did it again.

Jeff picked me up from The Children's Theatre (after a particularly grueling class (note: Trying to teach children anything of value on a holiday that so involves sugar is nearly impossible)). We went straight to Leatherby's to pick up some dessert for later. Jeff was being particularly difficult about informing me of any of the evening's details. And me, being a curious kid, struggled with that. But when we got home, Jeff finally explained that we were eating in tonight. He had planned to have everything set up and ready to go by the time we got home, but he ran into a line issue at the flower shop. So, I helped him finish up by making the bruschetta.

Then, Jeff told me to go into the bedroom and he would come get me when he was ready. He opened the door to this:

He is amazing. He made a delicious pasta and bean soup and had beautiful red roses and candlelight all for me. Not to mention an amazing view of the city! Did I mention that Jeff is amazing?

Afterwards, we went for a drive while we digested. Once that was sufficiently underway, we came back to eat our ice cream. We watched a documentary called Food Matters and immediately felt guilty for eating said ice cream. (But I still finished it the next day...)

We were both full of so much gratitude for our love for each other. And since this blog is mainly for our family (and future family), I will say that Jeff even got a little teary. I understand how that is. It happens to me whenever I think about how blessed I am to have Jeff. I must've done something right to deserve him. I am so grateful to have an eternal love. He gets me. He loves me. He cares for me. He makes me laugh. He calms me down. He lifts me up.

I love him. And I'm so glad that we celebrate our love on more than just Valentine's Day.

But, V-day still rocks.