About 10 years ago, my husband and I were slogging through the short days of winter. We were both working full time, and my husband was taking classes besides. On top of that we had a very active toddler that seemed to require very little sleep to take care of. Money, time, and patience were in short supply. Valentines Day was getting closer, and neither of us was very enthused about the holiday.
What was the solution to our problem? A contest! We decided that we should see who could find the most creative gift for under $5.
So the search was on. We both headed to the mall, and soon discovered that finding a creative, inexpensive gift was not as easy as we had hoped. After much searching, I found a small box of chocolates in a heart-shaped Elvis tin. My husband idolizes Elvis. He found me a package of assorted candies. Yes, I have a serious sweet tooth. After all was said and done, I won the contest. I seem to recall that my prize was getting to sleep in an extra half hour the following Saturday. In the end, the challenge itself was the fun part. We spent a little extra time thinking about one another as we shopped, and our wallets weren’t harmed in the process.
One of our first Valentines Day as a married couple landed on a Saturday. How perfect, you say! We were young with no kids, and were looking forward to going out for a nice dinner to celebrate the day. So, my husband started calling our favorite restaurants to get a reservation for dinner. He probably called 10 restaurants, and none of them had an opening before 8:00. (My husband has the great fortune to be married to a woman who cannot eat late. I get very cranky if I get hungry. Not a great thing for Valentine’s Day!) So we started brainstorming to see if we could come up with a unique restaurant that most other couples wouldn’t think of.
The city we lived in at the time had an Italian family that operated several steak and Italian restaurants in the older parts of town. Most of them had been around for many years, and were off the beaten path. As a teenager, I had gone to one of these restaurants. The inside was decorated with murals of Italian villages and lots of Christmas lights. It was funny, enchanting, and memorable. And the food wasn’t bad either! To our good fortune, they had a table for us, and we enjoyed fabulous Italian food in an enchanting setting.