Happy (Belated) Valentine's Day!

I never got around to posting yesterday because it ended up being a pretty busy day.  Chris gave me the most romantic gift he possibly could have after what feels like a month of being under house-arrest:  he came home early so that I could go spend a few hours alone at a coffee shop.  I took the laptop (so that I could work on a short story - it's about werewolves, very deep stuff) and - oh the bliss of time spent out of the house and in silence!!!  I couldn't have been happier.

Ruth did her best to help out with the Valentine's spirit by sleeping the entire time I was gone, so that Chris was able to get in a workout and reorganize his stash of beer in the basement.

The girls all enjoyed their V-day gifts (I found very cute and fancy-looking blank books, something we are all suckers for around here) and enjoyed their school parties, double-dosed because the CCD classes that night also had little celebrations.  Back at home we had grouper and lobster for dinner with Bailey's cheesecake for dessert.  (I overheard Beth and Katie talking:  "I don't ever drink alcohol but I know what it tastes like, since Mom and Dad are so obsessed with cooking with it!")  The girls drank chocolate milk out of their heart-shaped champagne glasses (which they loved - thanks, Mom!) and Chris and I had some of our favorite Molly Dooker wine and it was happiness and pink hearts all around.  We wound up the evening with a little Wipeout!, our favorite family show, and......it was just a great day.  I'm not sure how I lucked out like this, because I know without a doubt that I do not deserve to be this happy.

(This video is from a couple of days ago, because I didn't have the camera on when Ruth burst into hysterical laughter yesterday, but her sisters get belly-laughs like this just about every day and I think it illustrates pretty well what happy love looks like:)