After reading all the love/hate posts about Valentine’s Day in blogger land and on Social media, I decided I was going to lean into it this year and celebrate the hell out of it for the first time, because I’m a gay man and I just love a theme!

I had the Shiraz open and airing, dinner in the oven, and a playlist of our favorite love songs playing when Jeffrey got home. His only job was to build a fire.

Since I’m working from home and Jeffrey is working from the office, I was able to make and hang paper heart decorations in rainbow colors while he was at work, prep appetizers (hummus with roasted red pepper puree and homemade pita wedges, and shrimp cocktail) and dinner (Filet Mignon with blue cheese butter, roasted asparagus, and mashed potatoes) and bake an apple pie for dessert (to be served with Neapolitan ice cream.) I set the table for a romantic dinner: pink paper hearts, red place-mats made from construction paper cut with fancy scissors for a frilly edge, red tea light candles, our favorite bear tissues, and my giraffe napkin rings I had yet to use. I also had a bowl of candy hearts for whimsy.

After dinner, we had dessert and swapped VD gifts – a novelty for us for this day.

It was a great and fun evening and we had a wonderful time. I think I will be getting my heart on every year from now on.