Our Most Romantic Valentine's Day

My husband and I have always been a practical pair. Anniversary gifts being something that we had been needing for the homestead. Birthdays usually something that we had been going without and really had to have a replacement for. Landmark years we would splurge on the personal wish items.

This particular Valentine's Day we found ourselves just a wee bit more financially strapped than in years past. Our home pre-school business had lost a few kids and we had some emergency home repairs that had our heads reeling. Plus our daughter had announced her engagement so we knew there would be a wedding to pay for in the not so distant future. A romantic dinner for two sounded like an eye-crossing event at that point.

What to do?

My husband is a most difficult person to find a gift for in the easiest of monetary times. Except for having a penchant for watching bad television shows and movies, he doesn't have a hobby. Our family room had already been fitted with surround sound and a wide-screen HDTV. Besides, that was not in the gift allotment even if we didn't have them.

I decided to do what I do best. Making him a wonderful gourmet dinner was the course of action. I took out a leg of lamb from the freezer (one of his favorites), made it with his favorite side dishes and did the dinner table up with our wedding china, my grandparents community silverware, our crystal stemware, best linens and long stem red roses from our garden. Candles were to be lit. The non-alcoholic champagne was in the fridge chilling. I even wore a semi-formal dress and high heels (something I reserved to do only in highly desparate times, since I have arthritis!). I made the "kids" go out. Oh, I even wore sexy underwear. I figured we could have a very nice "dinner out", only we'd do it "in".

While I became a domestic goddess extraordinaire, my husband had a plan as well!

I am a crossword fanatic. So my wonderful hubby went on-line and downloaded 50 challenger level puzzles and bound them into a notebook for me. He used the paper ones that kids use for school reports. He titled it "Carine's Daily Challenge". Then he lit candles all over our bedroom and bath. Followed that by filling up our whirlpool and called me up. While dinner was roasting away, we had an "interlude" followed by a massage! He presented me with my treasure trove of mind-bogglers as we went downstairs to enjoy yet another course of our Valentine's Day feast.

The only thing that either one of us actually went out and spent money on that year was the $1.00 for the notebook. But in all honesty, it's the one that we always think was one of our finest, most romantic evenings that we ever spent.