a special valentine's eve.

     It has become somewhat of a tradition for Jason and I to celebrate Valentine’s Day on the 13^th of February. Somehow our schedules just never work for that special day and we always end up celebrating it the day before. Last year, we discovered that our halfway mark of our wedding anniversary is actually on the 13^th (this year being the 1.5 year mark) and gives us a special incentive to ignore the world and do our own thing. This year we were glad that we weren’t planning anything for the 14^th because Jason’s family was coming for their first visit to New York City!  But I’ll get to that later.

     The few days leading up to our Valentine’s Day were crazy. Jason was still getting back into school mode at the start of his second semester at NYU, I had just started my second job as a tutor at Huntington Learning Center (I’m already a substitute teacher at Bronxville Elementary), and on top of that I had to clean my house and make sure everything was perfect for the Cowles.

What's this?

     On the 13^th, I had just come home from my first day of working both jobs and I was still not sure what Jay and I were going to do to celebrate. I walked up the stairs to our home and noticed “Clue No. 1” sealed in a hot pink envelope and taped to the door. Jason wrote a short poem which led me to other hot pink envelopes hidden throughout the house with the last one finally disclosing our plans for Valentine’s Day. Jason is so good at surprises, even when we don’t have time for big ones and I had so much fun reading the clues to find the next one. He had me looking through our DVD collection, freezer, and even the toilet. After finding all ten, I had to follow the last clue up to the creepy attic where I was pleasantly surprised with Ghirardelli chocolate and a lovely card. In my lack of time over the week, I had only come up with a home-made card and some of Jay’s favorite candy. To finish the day, Jason arranged for us to eat at Frankie and Fanucci’s, an Italian Restaurant that is one of Westchester’s finest.

Some hiding places were cute and simple. . . 

While others were a little more messy. . .

Comin down from the cold attic with my surprise

I think he was happy with his candy

     After staying up until 2:30 in the morning to clean, I finally went to bed. Jason woke up only 30 minutes later to pick up his family from JFK airport. Since they had taken a red-eye flight, everyone was exhausted, so we just kind of hung out around the house and went to dinner and a movie. Warm Bodies wasn’t the typical chick flick, but Jessica, Jason, and I loved it! Dad fell asleep and snored.

     Stay tuned for the upcoming post about our visit from the Cowles. . .

What a good lookin bunch