Valentine's Day Ideas

By Gaby -
Valentine's Day is coming up, and this year I really wanted to make sure that I could put something together for Ryan that he could look forward to and enjoy.  Most years, we haven't made a very big deal over this holiday--but I'm learning life is short...why not take advantage of those moments you can anticipate and that add zest to the otherwise mundane routine?!

So after mulling over what I could possibly get for him, I decided to look out for his favorite beers (he had to give me a list since I'm not a beer connoisseur, so I guess he has an idea of what I have up my sleeve! oh well) and went to World Market today.  Does anyone else shop at WM?  I am addicted!  I bought a cute one-handle basket so I could fill it with goodies, including a 4-pack of one of his favorite beers:

Unibroue Maudite


A disgustingly huge V-day Toblerone (Ryan's fav)

Another one of Ryan's fav candies

I'll probably bake some cookies and maybe add a few other things in there in the next few days.  Okay, so maybe I'm not very good at really surprising my husband since he is sort of expecting something, but I know that won't detract from his appreciating my gift!

I'm a little ambitious and thought about baking cookies/cakes for various friends and students...but after some thought, I realized that was WAY too much work, more than it was worth.  In the past, I've gone out of my way to send friends or acquaintances gifts and/or trinkets just to let them know I'm thinking of them [and please know that I don't do this in hopes of getting something in return, absolutely not!] but more than half the time, I'm left wondering and worrying if my gifts got lost in the mail or if a sneaky neighbor accidentally received their gift(s) and decided to keep it for themselves, because I never hear anything about it.  And of course, another part of me wonders if they did receive it and just aren't very good about letting me know.  IDK, I think it's just a considerate thing to do when you receive something...at least, I try to be good about acknowledging a gift or card because it's the least I could do for the trouble they went to even send me something.  Anyways, enough about that-- it's just been on my mind, and after those ambitious thoughts I told myself to just limit gifts or cards to family members since I talk to them regularly and will know for sure if they receive something or not.

Can you believe I didn't realize that the Walking Dead is back on tonight?  I've been really out of it, I guess.  Ryan sent me this Moroccan Beef Stew to make for our dinner tonight.  Seems really easy; I'll have to let you know if it turned out well or not.

Happy End of Weekend :(

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