Elopement for some...

We have some friends that are eloping to Vegas this weekend and again they got engaged after we did. We now have 4 couples who have done this. Doesn't anyone have long engagements? This past 10 months of being engaged have been the best months of my life, I love the anticipation, planning and dreaming about our wedding. I'm excited for this couple though... it's the perfect thing for them.
So I thought it would be such a nice surprise to send them up a bottle of Champagne to their room in Vegas. We found out where they were staying and I called the Concierge this morning and set it all up. They will bring a Chandon Blanc up to their room tomorrow night at 8pm for a mere $56.59 (valued at any store here = $16) but it's all worth it for the sentiment. :) I think it's a pretty cool thing to do.

So last night Jason and I had a very romantic Valentine's dinner at home. Since we always go out to restaurants we always stay in on Valentine's. It's probably like the opposite for some couples. ;)
I was going to cook our meal and had already done all the shopping the night before so I came straight home from work. When I walked in the house Jason had flowers, chocolates and a card on the coffee table. He set it all up when he came home for lunch. The flowers where yellow and orange (our wedding colors!) and he had set them in a vase. I opened the card and I did a double take... it was the EXACT same card he gave me the year before! So funny... of course what he wrote on the inside was different. I called him (he was still at work) to thank him and give him a hard time about the card and he was shocked that he picked the same card. I guess he really likes that one card! I got out the older card and put it on the table for him to see when he got home... so funny. And he only buys me 2 cards a year! You'd think he'd remember... but men are different that way I guess.

By the time he came home I had dressed up in a nice skirt and top (usually I'm in sweats the second I walk in the house), had all the candles in the house lit, cheese and crackers out and a bottle of wine open.


I had just started on the home-made Gnocchi too (which I'll never do again, I'll explain later). He opened his card and we sat and chatted for a bit, and then as a slave to the gnocchi I was called back to the kitchen. He went upstairs to shower and I went on to the umpteenth step in making the gnocchi and opened a bottle of Champagne. We're not the biggest champagne drinkers but someone left a bottle over New Year's so we thought it would be fun to have it.

When he came back downstairs he had dressed up in slacks and a buttoned shirt for me because I was dressed up, so sweet. We toasted with the champagne to our love and he stayed and helped me with the gnocchi. I swear I've never made anything harder than this dish. It's not even hard to make but so many many steps go into it and so many many pots and dishes. It was fun though, we were dancing and drinking and talking. He ended up finishing the gnocchi so I could clean the mess that was forming around the sink. I then made a salad and once the gnocchi was finished we sat down to eat. We had polished off the bottle of champagne and so Jason opened a nice bottle of white to go with our meal. The salad was red leaf lettuce, red onion and chopped up oranges in a olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing and the gnocchi had a meyer lemon sauce so everything was very citrusy! The gnocchi didn't taste like gnocchi, it tasted just like potatoes... but it was good, just not what I was expecting. The salad however, as simple as it was, was fabulous! Both recipes we got from our food and wine magazines we get in the mail. I'll never make gnocchi again! It's too hard. :)

I cleaned the kitchen, we both changed into our sweats, decanted a bottle of Pinot and then I brought out a heart shaped chocolate piece of cake as a surprise. It was delicious!

One of my favorite things to do with Jason is to listen to him play the guitar, so he brought it out and all our favorite music and he played and we sang together for the rest of the night. It was a perfect evening!



Oh, and the only bottle we finished was the Champagne... we opened a few bottles but only had a couple of glasses out of them, I just wanted to say that so no one would think we had all 4 bottles of wine!

Tonight we have a friend coming in from out of town and he'll be staying with us through to Monday. It'll be fun because we'll be entertaining all weekend, going out, BBQ'ing, etc.

Whew! And so our week is practically already over again! Time really flies fast these days! :) Before we know it we'll be married, just like everyone else we know. ;)

Oh, and how cute are our cats? They love each other so much!