Our First Valentine’s Day Date

Chase and I have been together (dating, engaged, married!) since 2007.  That’s 9 Valentine’s Days that we celebrated after the fact.  Why, you ask? Well, Chase used to be a bartender, and that meant working on peak date-night days.  And being a costume designer for a school, you don’t really get to choose which weekends your play can be put on (competing for space with band, dance, etc.), so that meant the high school musical performed Valentine’s weekend.  

Our dates were consistently one or two weekends after the fact, and two years ago we finally managed to go out in March!  To be honest with you, it was crazy cheaper to wait and celebrate later.  Flowers were exponentially less expensive, we were able to get nearly any reservation we wanted, and as long as we chose a card before the stores ripped leftovers from the shelves, all was well.  

This year, 9 years later, we realized we had *nothing* to do on the fated weekend.  We could go out!! Okay, but what do we do? Because of years past, I’m now a curmudgeon about spending money on Valentine’s Day.  But I also want Chase to know how much I appreciate how supportive he’s been through the last year with the birth of Scarlett and the hectic nature of our new normal.  So, I took my Mom’s suggestion of a fancy downtown eatery with a prix fixe menu and fabulous wines. 

We went, we ate, we didn’t touch our phones. We laughed, we drove home, we relaxed.  It was only after I had washed my face, hung up my “going out” clothes and Chase had donned his PJs that I realized we didn’t take a single photo of the event.  So I turned back on the lights and we snapped a little selfie to commemorate the real-ness of it all. 

Our two littlest Valentines were already at home in the bed when we got home, thanks to Nonna.  They had prizes from Grandmartha, Nonna and us to celebrate the day and lots of cards to look at.  Red’s even featured a Star Wars puzzle to play with later.  Daddy picked that one out.  (With the big Star Wars nut that we have on our hands, you know that was a hit!)  

9 years in the making, our first Valentine’s Day was wonderful. Excellent, top-notch food, the best date I could ask for, and these little lovelies waiting for us at home.  Not bad for a “first” date, don’t you think?!