love day.

It seems like just yesterday that Trav and I were saying to each other on Valentine's Day, "Next year on Valentine's Day we will be married!"  Nope, not yesterday . . . one year ago!  Time goes by much too fast.
 

We had a lovely first married Valentine's Day.  It was perfect, actually.  We decided to spend it at home this year and just enjoy each other.  No restaurants, no being surrounded by the billions of other people out on a date, no distractions . . . just us.

Before Trav got home from work, I got dressed up as I knew he was in a nice shirt and tie for work that day.  I set the table nice, using our wedding china and red tumblers and made a quick and easy centerpiece and hung a simple bunting reminding Travis just how I feel about him.

When I got home from work there was a plate of cute cupcakes sitting on our porch with a love note from Sarah Jane and Luke.  I decided I would add the cupcakes to the dinner setting, as Trav's favorite thing is to eat dessert before dinner :)
 

The second Trav walked in the door, he handed me the mail.  Tucked in between all of the boring bills and advertisements I found a sweet, sweet surprise . . .

A love letter from my Love that made me cry.

 

He then handed me the cutest gift bag ever and wanted me to open my present right away.  He apologized that it wasn't creative or super thoughtful.  I looked at him like, "You're crazy!"  He had just given me the most thoughtful and creative letter!  I didn't need anything else.  But when I opened the bag to find a darling cardigan, I was thrilled.  A cute cardigan is right at the top of my list of favorite things.  I don't know why the man was apologizing . . .

I was trying to have as much of the dinner ready as possible before he got home but, I failed.  Miserably.  So right after opening presents we got to work . . . together . . . in the kitchen.  Which was perfectly fine . . . one of our favorite things to do is work in the kitchen together.

  

One of Trav's absolute favorite foods is seafood . . . and more specifically, shellfish.  So we had a lobster/shrimp/salmon feed.  We made an amazing Shrimp and Angel Hair Pasta, broiled the lobster and salmon, and had a delicious garden salad on the side.  Who needs a restaurant when you can do all of this at home???
 

 

We stuffed ourselves silly, barely leaving room for our fondue dessert . . .

We of course made room for it and enjoyed using our fondue pot for the first time.
 

If you are interested in the Shrimp and Angel Hair Pasta or the Chocolate Fondue recipes, you can find them here.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

{a few days late}