Oh, Tradition

As promised, I'm here today to share the little story behind our first Valentine's day.

WAIT! KEEP READING! I promise, this isn't a gooey gross story. It's a little funny actually!

     So, as you all know, I have the pleasure of living with and dating this stud:

Very manly and Minnesotan, right? Right.

    So Valentine's Day came only a month or two after we started dating- which is always a little awkward in a new relationship. Do you get a gift? A card? Nothing? Too soon? Luckily neither of us really care too much about presents and such so we got over that quickly. Now, both of our birthdays are a few days after V-Day (his is 1 day after mine, to be exact. it's how we met- but that's a story for another day), and Michael's parents happened to be coming to town to visit him and take him out for birthday dinner with his aunt & uncle who live right outside the city.
   Now, at this point I hadn't met his parents or any family for that matter...and the next thing I knew he was informing me that I'd be meeting them...at dinner...on Valentine's Day. Nothing like taking a romantic holiday and throwing a mom, dad, aunt, uncle, and cousin into the mix, right? I was actually thrilled and relieved because:
  a.) I was dying to meet the family he always talked about
 and
 b.) it took away any remaining pressure of worrying about what to do/plan for that night.

    I have to say- for those of you reading this: on paper- meeting someone's parents for the first time on Valentine's Day sounds awkward and weird, I know. I mean you don't even know these people and you're sitting at a restaurant surrounded by people making out! It either is a good idea or I was just lucky- but it was actually COMPLETELY perfect. Maybe it's just because Michael's family are some of the sweetest, most welcoming people I know- but there was not a second of tension or awkwardness. Seriously. If anything, all the smoochy couples around gave us something to laugh and talk about. At one point in the evening someone asked Michael if he got me some flowers, which he hadn't. A short while later when the checks were being brought around, the waiter gave each of us ladies a white rose. Now, of course this was something the restaurant did for every guest- but my dearest Michael, smooth as can be quickly said:


  "Um, that's actually from me! See! I got you flowers! And...got one for everyone else in the restaurant so they wouldn't feel left out!"

We all had a good laugh about it - and now each year he gets me a single white rose in honor of that awesome first Valentine's together. The perfect tradition, if you ask me! This year we both work and I volunteer- so it'll be a low key evening for us. Maybe I'll get motivated and make the raspberry blueberry fizz cocktail I talked about last week :)

****Oh, and I forgot to ever make a post about it...but I made V-Day hanging hearts to decorate the windows in the apartment (out of paint chips, of course):

What's your little Valentine's tradition with your love/friends/self? Any good stories to share?