Such a good day!

I absolutely love holidays and pretty much live for tradition, but lately with so many distractions I was starting to become a little bit of a grinch (a Valentine's grinch)! It seemed like nothing was working out right. I wanted to have a Valentine's Day party but we didn't get in our house in time. I've been feeling either sick or exhausted most days thanks to this baby. Travis was going to be out of town until that afternoon. I hadn't sent packages or even cards to family and friends. I hadn't finished the cookies I was making for Trav and other friends and neighbors. The weather here is awful. And worst of all I have to be away from my family which makes me sad on every holiday!

As you can see I was pretty pessimistic and considering I married a man that wasn't born with a holiday gene in his entire body, I was pretty sure this Valentine's Day was doomed! But I was wrong...

My Valentine's Day started at about 2 o'clock in the morning. I was in bed alone asleep at Trav's parent's house, not expecting Travis home from out of town until later that afternoon when I heard a knock at the door. After recovering from my initial terror when he snuck in to surprise me, it was so nice to not spend another night in bed alone and to wake up on Valentine's Day with my husband.

When we woke up the next morning and were laying in bed talking, I of course started into more complaining. I was whining to Travis that I missed when I was growing up and how my dad always had a rose and chocolates waiting at the breakfast table for each of us when we woke up. I of course went on and on with my "my dad is the best, and you'll probably never live up to him" speech while Trav sat back and took it as usual! A few minutes later I wandered downstairs to get breakfast, and this is what I found...



I felt super guilty, and so so happy! I couldn't believe he remembered what I liked and pulled it off even after having come home in the middle of the night! This got me in such a better mood and set my day off to a much better start! The rest of the day seemed to follow suit. Things finally just fell into place. We signed the final papers to close on our house, I had lunch with my husband, talked to my mom, Reese and Stephanie came over and helped me decorate the cookies (which was so much more fun than if I had done them myself!), I finally finished the cookie bouquets like my mom always made us, and it just turned out to be such a nice day. I couldn't believe it!





To finish up my wonderful day, Travis took me out to celebrate with best dinner I have had in a very long time! A favorite local restaurant of ours "The Collage" put on an amazing five course gourmet Valentine's dinner this year and my husband actually remembered to make reservations (if you know him, you know thats a big deal)! It was so incredible. I wish I could have taken pictures of the food but where we were sitting there was no way to do it on the down low! Every single course looked and tasted like a masterpiece. They even gave each woman a long stemmed rose as they sat you. Just to summarize some of the treats we had crab cakes, field greens with pears and feta, potato leek soup with creme fraiche, shallots with sorbet and champagne, filet mignon in a peppercorn sauce, rum chocolate tarte with vanilla bean custard, and panna cotta with a berry compote! We were in heaven to say the least! I looked at least 8 months pregnant by the time I finished all that food! It truly was such a perfect night, and likely one of the last fancy nights out we will have for a very long time (at least without worrying about babysitters and bottles)! It was such a treat to dress up a little (even if I did look like a hefty bag!) and spend a romantic night out with my husband.



So, in the end, I still didn't get to host a party and I still feel bad I didn't get treats out to family and friends (especially sorry to my TyGuy & Carter), but more importantly I was reminded that if I can just relax a little and let go of some of my stress I have so much more fun and make much better memories! I need more days like this one!

The moral of the story...(really just for Travis)...just think how happy and cheerful I would be if I woke up to fresh flowers and dark chocolate every day!