What times? Valentimes!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Being the LDS folk we are, Meagan and I were debating whether or not we should celebrate the pagan holiday of the Most Holy Feast of Saint Valentine, Servant of the Lord and Martyr to His Gospel on the Sabbath or not. We ultimately ended up celebrating Valentine's weekend, which I would highly recommend to anyone interested in making your life a lot better.

We started the festivities after I got off work on Friday with the most romantic activity in all of Bentonville, Arkansas: a trip to Wal-Mart. Amorous!

The plan was an amazing one, hatched by my lovely wife: we'd have an extended fondue dinner. Those of you who have ever had a full fondue meal (like at the marvelous restaurant The Melting Pot) know that A) it is awesome beyond most languages' abilities to describe, and B) it can go for HOURS. Here's the basic rundown of how the meal went:

Cheese Course

We made an excellent sharp cheddar cheese dip, which I cooked to an excellent consistency. Into it we dipped summer sausage, smoked sausage, ham cubes, sourdough bread chunks, and well-crusted hard rolls. Amazing. This is one of the faster courses in a fondue dinner. It's first, so you're really ripping into it with crazy hunger-passion. It is also all ready to eat. Everything before you is cooked and ready to go. You can eat as quickly as you want. We wound this one up in about half an hour and took a break to digest.

Broth Course

This is where time kicks in. I seasoned some beef broth and brought it to a boil in our fondue pot. We then set out plates of raw shrimp, filet mignon, broccoli, and mushrooms. Where you go from here is fairly obvious. Each food item needs to cook for about three minutes. Taking bite-sized pieces of food and cooking them one at a time takes quite a while. We were doing this for about three hours. Delicious.

Chocolate Course

And, of course, chocolate. Ohhhh my. We made a creamy dip from a mixture of milk and semi-sweet chocolate that had a wonderful texture to it. Into that we dipped strawberries, pineapple, pecans, pound cake, vanilla wafers (classy!), biscotti, and Granny Smith apples.

All through this, we had the chance to watch the Olympic opening ceremonies. Now, I am not a fan of watching TV on dates or at dinner. But this was special. Because we pretty much knew what was going on, we chatted through the whole thing. Sometimes it was about what was on screen, and a lot of the time it was about other things. But we talked through the whole dinner, and it was wonderful. It was one of the most fun nights I've had in a long time, and one of the best dates Meagan and I have ever had.

And THAT was just Friday!

Saturday was simpler; just some gift exchanging. Meagan got me an edited movie of my choice from a website that somehow still offers them, and I got her half a dozen chocolate covered strawberries, which she had earlier hinted she "would take over flowers any day of the week." I also got her one of the great romantic gifts of our time: an Arby's gift card.

Before I'm laughed off…um…the internet, I guess, let me explain why this was something that made her very happy. Meagan is blessed (so far!) to have pretty easy pregnancies from a morning sickness standpoint. She develops some minor food aversions, has a heightened sense of smell for a while, but she never throws up or has too rough of a time. Where the hormones kick in, though, is in food cravings. She can get utterly addicted to something while pregnant. It's amazing. This pregnancy, it's been Arby's. She always wants to go there. Luckily, she's strong enough to forbear and not spend all our money at every drive-thru she passes. As such, despite how incredibly white trash it sounds, I actually really nailed V-day this year! Hooray!

Sunday, V-day proper, was celebrated with a wonderful steak dinner (thanks, Mom!) and a lot of cookies. There is no better way to celebrate any occasion than with a bunch of cookies.

That, madams et monsieurs, was our Valentine's Weekend. It was a great chance to realize how lucky we are to have each other and to have such a great marriage. We hope yours went equally well!

1 comments:

Caitlin said...

You guys are, quite possibly, my favorite couple ever. I am glad you are so happy. :) Miss you.