Valentine's Day

I think I had one of the best Valentine's Days I've ever had.  I've never been real big on the holiday... but I really do like the idea of having a day to express love... cause all you need is love... haha... just wanted to throw in a Beatles reference.

My Valentines started a couple of days early when my dad surprised me with a gift of M&Ms and a card - it was really sweet.

On Thursday morning I woke up to find my mom left me a Valentines gift.  She always does something sweet.  On a side note, when we were younger on Valentines Day she would make meatloaf in the shape of a heart, it was the only time we ate meatloaf... it's a fun childhood memory.

After work I headed over to Dan's place... We hadn't really made specific Valentine's Day plans... I kinda wanted to see what he would come up with on his own.  I know this could set me up for disappointment, but he totally came through.  I remember thinking a couple of times that night - wow, this is really great, he really put thought into this.

He made me dinner, beef stew (which I should have gotten a picture of... but I didn't) and he got us Ben and Jerry's ice cream (Americone Dream).  He served me and got me a card and even got me a gift.  It was totally sweet and totally overshadowed the silly gift I made him.  Although he said that he really liked it, in a very genuine way.

I made him a 52 reasons why I love you book... which is all over Pinterest, but I really liked the idea, especially b/c he always asks why after I tell him I love him (ok, not always, but enough... it's a thing we do.)  I really wasn't sure what we had planned, otherwise I may have gotten him more, but we have two more big gift giving days coming up in the next month and a half (our one year and his birthday), so I have plenty of time to spoil him.

Anyway... here's some pictures of my gift I made... it's super easy... first I came up with 52 reasons why I loved him (I started the list about a month ago and added/adjusted when I thought of new reasons).  Then I bought some shipping labels from Target (Avery brand 2"x4").  I used the template already loaded into MS Word to put the reasons in.  I typed them in each box and I used 10 different fonts to keep things interesting.  I turned the words so they read the long way (so it fit better onto the cards).  I also altered the font size so everything looked better too.  I used my printer at work to print them.  I then found an old deck of cards we had laying around the house (that makes it sound bad, but I liked the idea of worn cards, I actually shuffled them quite a few times and bent them back and forth... although I doubt it made that big of a difference)

I then cut the labels down to the right size depending on the text - and stuck them on the cards.  I just did the cards in whatever order they were in since I shuffled them.  After I stuck all the labels on I punched holes in all the cards - going based on a line that was already printed on the card.  I didn't get real specific and just tried to make it look good, homemade, but not perfect.  It worked out real well!! I used the jokers as the front and back page - so no waste.  I strung them all together with two binder rings - and viola, a Valentine's gift.  I hope he liked it as much as he seemed to... he keeps saying, what's reason 39? Like I remember them all by number haha.

I don't want to list out all 52 reasons, but some are serious, a lot are just random, but things I really do love about him.  Overall... it was a wonderful Valentine's Day... as perfect as I could have wanted!