Our first February 18

My first Valentine's Day with Matt was spent feeling quite ill, eating a bland grilled chicken breast, and watching "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." However, our actual Valentine's Day celebration (February 18) was phenomenal. I bought a tablecloth, napkins, placemats, and even dinner and dessert plates that all matched at Target. Have I mentioned that store rocks my world? So I set our table, put up red and white Christmas lights, lit a bunch of candles, and set up a frame with a bunch of pictures of us.

I made brownies from scratch with peanut butter chips in lieu of the walnuts (did you know they're so much better than boxed ones?) and chicken fettuccine alfredo with cheesy garlic bread. Matt doesn't drink any kind of fruit juice but orange and doesn't like sparkling ones, so we had Hawaiian Punch in our cute wine glasses. I have to say, the food went over well. We ate the leftovers for two days.

Matt planned the remainder of the evening, so we headed upstairs. I heard much banging around when I was downstairs cooking, so I was curious as to what he had done. The picture above shows the winter scene he created - a 3-dimensional fireplace with real wood, red tissue paper, and a heater fan blowing behind it. We sat on the fuzzy blanket and played checkers. Not just regular checkers, though - that would be too easy for my baby. If you jumped someone's checker, you looked on the bottom and they had to do whatever it said. For example, I sang the national anthem. And yes, I know all the words (NASCAR's good for so many different things). Matt acted out a movie scene. I did the robot (not well). Matt acted like a monkey. It was the most entertaining game of checkers I have ever played. I was smoking him until the end...do I have to admit that he won? Grrr.

He also printed off some dating disaster stories and read them to me. It was overall such a great night. One of my favorite dates (so far). I am so grateful that I have such a creative man - sometimes it's maddening, but it's good for fun, new romantic ideas!

37 DAYS!!