Opals, Pizzas, and Pickles = Valentine's?

In our family, we celebrate Valentine's by just relaxing and enjoying being together. This year for the most part was no different, and in my opinion the best yet (and not just due to the big surprise I got).

What I usually enjoy the most about the holiday is the colors and decorations. I LOVE pink, red, and white, and a little purple added in. I also like the cute little trinkety decorations and gifts. I did a great job of resisting purchasing them this year. Go me!

As for gifts: For Holly this year, I got her a gift that also helped in other areas. I found a cute pink and white outfit. Pink for Valentine's, and outfit because the kid has grown a ton this year and is in need of some spring/summer clothes. Also, Wednesday is Spring Picture Day at school and I thought this would be great for that. But the outfit just didn't look right on her, so I will return it and get her a cute dress I saw at another store. For Larry I got a new game for him for the Wii. So as you can see I didn't get anyone anything big just things I thought they would enjoy.

Larry surprised me with this:

I was totally not expecting this! I had told him back at Christmas I wanted one, but I told him so he could use it as an excuse of something to look for when he was taking a buddy out to run errands while I could helped his girlfriend set up for his surprise birthday party. I already have an opal, but it has been passed down to the next October born female in my family for a number of years and is becoming quite delicate in its setting. I have not liked any of the suggestions made when I have taken it in to various jewelry repair shops, so I don't wear it. So Larry has known for a long time my want. This was long coming I found out. He's just been looking for one that had my other birthstone, Tourmaline (which is pink!), too.

Like I said though, the day was really spent just relaxing. We watched movies and ordered in for lunch. You would think on Valentine's you would be all about the hearts, and this would include being healthy. We were all about the hearts too, but definitely not healthy ones. Our lunch:

HEART SHAPED PIZZAS!

For dinner, we had planned to go out to eat, but after ordering pizza and being lazy, we just stayed in. I ended up making these:

FRIED PICKLES!! (Told you we weren't heart healthy for the holiday.) Larry has been going out to lunch with vendors and co-workers a lot lately and he keeps telling me they keep going to Hooters where he gets fried pickles. This greatly upsets me! Not the Hooters part, the fried pickles part! I am not a jealous wife when it comes to other women. I totally trust my husband. But I do get jealous of his eating those pickles! None of the guys he goes with believes Larry when he tells the them that I only get upset about the pickles and not the restaurant they went to. They all say they can't tell their wives/girlfriends they went and will even pay in cash so they don't find out. To prove to the other guys he means it when he tells them I don't get jealous, he's mentioned going to Hooters to them with me standing there. We both laugh when we are alone again at the scared looks that come across their faces when he does it and I just stand their enjoying the conversation! So anyway, my point was that Larry had originally promised to go and pick me up an order of pickles for a Valentine's gift. But I decided it would be fun to see if we could make our own. They came out pretty good. Still need to do a little more tweaking on the recipe I found, but I'm pleased! Heck, Larry had me make another batch tonight to take with him to work tomorrow.

Hope everyone else had just as enjoyable VALENTINE'S as we did!