What A {Love}ly Day!

Just thought I'd take a moment to tell you guys how great our Valentine's Day was yesterday!

First off, the night before, I made some heart-shaped, chocolate-covered rice crispy pops for Sina's teachers at school, and sent along some store-bought treats for her little friends at school.  I was inspired by a post on this awesome blog and received lots of positive feedback on how they turned out!

Looking back on my childhood, I can only remember getting Valentine's from friends at school when I was in the first grade.  I remember making a card box and then collecting cards from friends in class.  Sina's not even two, and is in a toddler room at daycare, and already received her first few official Valentines.  How cute is that?  She came home with lots of candy that mom and dad will have to eat!

I was feeling the love all day at work too.  I mean, it was raining Valentine's Day candy and treats all day long.  At work, I'm an Executive Officer to one of the primary staff officers for our Command.  Executive Officers are always dubbed "XO", so how cool was it when one of my senior officers dropped in with a basket of treats his wife made saying, "XO, what's with all these treats I have here with your name on it?"  Get it?  Tons of the treat bags were labeled "XOXO".  Yup, that's me, a bundle of hugs and kisses :)

We didn't have any big plans to go out for dinner.  We really just wanted to spend the night at home relaxing.  So, I whipped up a wonderful dinner for all of us.  Chicken Marsala....yummy!  Click here for the link to the recipe I used.  Since I couldn't find Marsala wine anywhere, I used some white wine I had at home.  I served it up with some sauteed brussel sprouts.  Dee-licious!

We all exchanged gifts during dinner, Sina included.  She received a teddy bear and a new movie (educational, of course).  I got Malu a Vitamix.  He'd been wanting a blender for a long time and I wanted something that would last for years.  Let's hope the Vitamix is exactly everything it's supposed to be, because it cost a pretty penny.  I have to admit that I've been wanting it too, so we can pretty much call it a joint V-Day gift.  I personally didn't want anything big for Valentine's Day seeing how the sewing machine I wanted so badly a few months ago is still in its box in our room and the fancy-do camera I got for Christmas has barely been used either.  Still, Malu got me the Breaking Dawn, Part I, movie that I wanted as well as some chocolates (hmmm....do you think we have enough chocolate to last us the next few months?).  The movie was the perfect close to a perfect evening.

After dinner tonight, I put the many cards received from friends and family from all over on top of one of our bookshelves in the living room.  It's a lot of cards!

We feel so blessed to love and to be loved.

Happy Wednesday Everyone!  Tomorrow is our Friday.  Another long weekend.  Woo hoo!!!