Family

Valentine’s Day Festivities

I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day!

My favorite kind of chocolate!

I enjoyed time with my favorite kind of chocolate on V-Day, chocolate lab!

I’ve always loved Valentine’s Day. I think because it was always a special day for me as a child. I can remember decorating my Valentine’s Box for school each year, picking out specific Valentines for everyone in my class (they pretty much always had dogs on them!), and my mom always giving me a small gift like a stuffed animal or chocolates to celebrate.

This Valentine’s Day was lovely, and I feel blessed that I was able to spend time with Jimmy in the evening! He surprised me with the sweetest gift–he called me after work to inform me that he was making dinner for us. This was a big deal because Jimmy had never cooked for us before!

He went to the grocery store to buy the ingredients and told me that he didn’t trust himself to cook everything. I offered to be his sous chef, and we had such a nice time in the kitchen together.

linguine-with-shrimp-scampi

Jimmy’s menu included:

Impressive, right?! The menu was very gourmet and everything tasted absolutely delicious. The best part was that Jimmy had planned everything out and thought of such a special dinner.

valentines-dinner

On the work side of things, the family I work for had me bake cupcakes and assemble treat bags for their kids’ Valentine’s Day parties at school. It’s really fun for me to feel like a part of a family with little ones. I think kids just make holidays extra special.

valentines-treat-collage

I have to share some pictures from my parents, too! They ran a Valentine’s Day 5k together, which I thought was adorable. They finished in 32:00 minutes, which I think is quite impressive. Go mom and dad!

valentines-5k

Lastly, my sister and her fiancé received some great news on Valentine’s Day. The offer they put on a house was accepted! Congrats on becoming homeowners Hannah and Josh! They’ll move in after their wedding in June! I can’t wait to see their home in person 🙂

Tell me about your Valentine’s Day!

Past Valentine’s Day Celebrations
Valentine’s Day 2016
Valentine’s Day 2014
Valentine’s Day 2013
Valentine’s Day 2012
Valentine’s Day 2011

A Day of Surprises

One of favorite things to do is surprise people. When my mom texted our immediate family and her family from Upstate New York saying that she wanted to plan a surprise 50th birthday for my aunt, I was all in.

The original plan was to have my family surprise her at breakfast and then take her out to dinner that night and all of her friends and family would be there to wish her happy birthday. I started scheming and decided we needed to surprise my aunt all. day. long.

Here’s what went down:

  • My family drove to NY on Friday after work and checked into a local hotel.
  • My aunt went to out breakfast with her cousin on Saturday morning, and there sitting in the restaurant was my dad, mom, brother, and sister-in-law.
  • Then, the gang went to TJ Maxx to go shopping… and Hannah, Josh, and my aunt’s daughter were hanging out in the decor section.
  • For round three, the girls told my aunt they made a nail appointment for her. She walked in the nail salon and Jimmy, me, and two of my cousins were there!
  • The guys and a few of the girls went ice fishing on the Sacandaga Lake while the rest of the girls had their nails done and then went to my cousin’s house to play with her daughter.
  • For dinner, my aunt’s friend had told her she was taking her to a local restaurant for a girls’ night about a week before, but instead she was greeted by 25 friends and family, balloons, and cake. It was the best!

My aunt was so surprised all day, and it was such a joy to see her reaction. She’s been through a lot in the past year, including the death of her husband. She definitely deserved some cheering up, and we were all more than happy to be there to celebrate with her.

How about some pictures?

elevatornail-salonfeeding-maciesistersmaciephotobooth-propscakecandles

It was a whirlwind weekend with 14 hours of driving, but so worth it. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we’ll see our NY family in April for Hannah’s bridal shower!

Surprises are the best 🙂