Valentine's Day

I dislike this holiday, greatly. I always have. Mostly because until last year, I had never been with anyone on Valentine's Day. But also, because of the fact that its stressful on singles as well as couples. I mean, its the one day of the year that being single is just plain crappy. But, if you're in a relationship, its stressful to live up to the expectations of the holiday.
This year, Hallmark caught my attention with their "I love us" commercials. Because really, thats what loving someone is about. You love them but you love them with you. Jay agreed with me on that fact, and so we decided to "celebrate us" this weekend.
The "celebration of us" started off with a yummy homecooked meal on Friday night. It was our own version of surf-n-turf. Jay cooked up some steak, while I whipped together a mango salsa to top our yummy brown butter sauteed scallops! Paired with some linguine... it was a perfect dinner!

mango salsa...a first for me!

Saturday was breakfast out...followed by a fieldtrip to a basketball game. Jay's friend is coaching a young boys team, so we showed up to lend our cheers.
Saturday night we headed to dinner at the Buckhorn Exchange. While the food was tasty (rattlesnake, elk, buffalo, quail and ostrich!), the front of house service was subpar. I was pretty disappointed. Le sigh.
Sunday... was a lazy day. Slept in late, made homemade crepes with nutella (my fave!) strawberries, blueberries and bananas!!!! This was followed by an afternoon trip to Yogurtland...

so yummy!

And the weekend ended with a dinner out with beautiful Miss Stacey and her hubby Joe. We headed to Lola's in the highlands for that tasty meal. Not to be confused with Lala's in Capital Hill. Because... there was much confusion.

All in all, it was a great weekend to "celebrate us". I still dislike the Valentine's holiday and the stigma and social expectations it forces on the consumers of our time. BUT... I have to be pretty thankful, grateful and happy with the weekend of celebration.