Valentine's Sweets

There's been so much happening this month, but I had to share our Valentine's Day celebration. (Sorry it's so late!!) This was our first Valentine's Day as a married couple, so we did a couple of different things and gave small but thoughtful presents. :)

On Saturday, February 12th, we went to Cross Keys Vineyards Valentine's Day dinner. Since we got married there, we figured it was a pretty good place to celebrate love, romance, and happiness! It was DELICIOUS! Great food, fantastic wine, romantic seating, and just a place to revel in love.

Excited to go inside Cross Keys on a chilly February eve.

The 5-course menu with drink pairings: Appetizer w/ Pinot Noir 2008, Soup w/ Meritage 2008, Salad w/ Fiore 2010 (the new Fiore was yummy!!), Chicken Entree w/ Chardonnay 2009, and Chocolate dessert w/ decadent Tavern 2008

They had roses for the ladies...

And candlelight to see my sweet husband...

You can see some of the delicious dessert! Yum, yum!!

At our table at the end of the evening

Leaving after a great night!

Next on the Valentine's Day tour: We made homemade presents this year, which was quite fun! And we gave each other the presents whenever they happened to be done, since we couldn't wait to share. So I gave Adam his on Saturday, and he gave me his gift on Sunday.

I made Adam a bowl of "fortune cookies" made via a "recipe" from Martha Stewart.
Why? Because he loves fortune cookies!

"Recipe": Cut out a felt circle, glue wire and ribbon inside, so that it can bend like a fortune cookie,
then stuff with candy (dark chocolate Hershey's kisses in this case) and a fortune! :)

I think he "loves" the gift??

He took a photo of a Shakespeare sonnet, with his ring balanced to make a heart in the book.
Really creative and I love it! hearts, shakespeare, rings, love...it's pretty perfect for me!
This is a picture of the pic + frame that he gave me.

On actual Valentine's Day, we decided to have a quiet dinner at home with Mr. Oliver and each other. We cooked together and just relaxed!

Our dinner on 2/14: Fish, mixed veggies, a Gerwurtzmeiner, bread and herb-infused olive oil

Sweets to my sweet!

I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day and continues to love their loved ones all year round!

Copelands visit Copelands

For Adam's birthday weekend,his parents visited us in Harrisonburg. We had a WONDERFUL visit--chatting, eating delicious meals, exploring Harrisonburg, seeing The King's Speech and just enjoying time together!

On Saturday, we went to the Arboretum on quite the blustery day. Here's a windblown shot of my husband's delightful parents.

It was a fun visit, and I know how lucky I am to have such caring, cheerful in-laws. Although it was a short visit, we felt blessed that they made the trek and got to be guests in our house.

Even Oliver got in this group shot

The favorite son?? j/k Anna, Luke, & Bethany!

Happy birthday to Adam! Thank goodness (for me!) that your parents decided to have you. :)

Marginalia

My apologies for my lapse in blogging. I've got some pictures from Valentine's Day and from a wonderful visit with Adam's parents, but I've got just a few more papers to grade! In the meantime, I found this lovely article about marginalia.

Marginalia is the description for things written in the margins of (usually) printed texts. Of utmost fun is when a famous author writes marginalia in their books or in others (this article talks about Mark Twain's snarky comments). I studied quite a bit of this in graduate school, and I do miss studying these extra-textual events. Perhaps I'll just start doing some dissertation-level research...without the hassle of the dissertation! After all, just reading this article brought a huge smile to my face and sparked thousands of interesting questions and ideas into my mind. And my mind has been lacking that stimulation for a bit...maybe it's time to get back in mental acuity shape! :)

Props to February!

When I was growing up, February was kind of a boring month. It was short, still cold, and there weren't really any fun holidays for me to celebrate. I have a healthy dislike of weather-predicting rodents; I don't think that we got Presidents' Day off; and it wasn't like Valentine's Day was all that. Sure, sending/receiving Valentine's Day cards in elementary school was fun and my parents bought us a bit of chocolate, but it wasn't like Christmas or Easter or (glory of glories) Hallowe'en. Plus, there's that whole creepy lovey-dovey vibe. Since my dad wouldn't let me date until I was 16, and since I didn't have a date until I was 18--I was firmly on the "love is so silly/trite/idiotic" train for awhile. :)

Now, though, February is actually a pretty cool month! My nephew, Ethan, was born five years ago on February 15th....he shares a birthday with Galileo (who shares a birth year with my buddy William Shakespeare!). Two-and-a-half years ago, I met another fabulous February birthday boy: my husband Adam! And, every year, on February 20th, he finally catches up to me, age-wise, until my August b-day rolls around. In addition, I kinda like Valentine's Day now that I have someone who will give me love and happiness year-round. Uh-oh, my 15-year-old self is sneering at my 31-year-old self!!

So, February, you're doing pretty all right. I've got a steady job and steady household. I'm looking forward to the following this month: a fun (and tasty) superbowl party, a weekend visit from my wonderful in-laws, a Valentine's Day dinner at CrossKeys Vineyards (where we tied the knot last March), many fun birthdays to celebrate, possible snow-tubing or skiing at Massanutten Resort, planning for our upcoming trip to San Antonio, drinks with friends, appreciating Harrisonburg's apparent no-snow-allowed policy, and a happy dog who doesn't have to walk outside in bad weather. To some, it may not be much. To me, it's Februtastic! Huzzah!

My February birthday boys!