Romance

We went to a Valentine's party last night at our good friends' house. They always throw great parties that run way into the night and end up having many memorable stories.

Julie, the perfect hostess to a party, had sent the invitations with a note saying, "pleasurable prize for the man that writes or sings the best love poem or song to his partner". Of course, this was the buzz the whole week before the party, "did so-and-so write his poem yet?" or "what song will so-and-so be singing this weekend?" All the guys were all talk BEFORE the party of course, tales of how they would stand up there and not be afraid to show their softer side - of course when the opportunity arrived, not all of them were so brave, my husband included.

There were at least 50 people at this shindig - so it was pretty intimidating, but this is a small town and we all know each other pretty well from baseball, soccer, basketball, committees - anything involving all our kids, we knew some more so than others - but all in all, a pretty comfortable group.

Before the big performance, Julie had other 'ice-breakers', she passed out little slips of paper with love trivia on them - you had to work together as a couple to come up with your answers. Then everyone that got their answer right, their name went into a hat and someone's name was drawn for a prize.

There was a mountian of strawberries, pineapple, kiwi and raspberries surrounding a huge chocolate fountain, tons of other yummy food and anything you wanted to drink. Rhett (Julie's husband) prides himself on how many different drinks he can master.

In anticipation of the big event, the guys were tippin' a few back to become a little more couragious. Then, the big moment arrived. The first sucker, I mean, guy jumped up and did a great poem complete with props - he had a whole box of candy that he somehow managed to fit the names of into his poem of undying love for his wife. example: "the first time I saw your eyes, they were like 'starbursts' " - to which he handed her a pack of starbursts and so on and so on until his poor wife had an entire lap full of different candy. The next guy went the serious route and made us all tear up - NO ONE wanted to follow that one! But one by one more than half the guys got up there and either did funny or sappy or downright dirty poems to their wives or girlfriends - it was great. We laughed until we cried. In the end, we all voted for the best one and that couple got a huge basket full of romantic goodies to make their Valentines Day complete. Good times.

We called it a night pretty early (1:00 a.m.), but some of the die-hards stayed until 3 a.m., which is about the time these parties usually run to. We are getting too old for this stuff.

It was nice for someone to dictate to all of us the romantic stuff - after you've been married for awhile (not everyone, I know, but most) the romantic stuff sometimes gets lost in the everyday shuffle - especially if you have children. We are so busy shuttling kids, making appointments, working, cleaning, etc., etc., it is easy to forget the simple romantic stuff and how good it makes us feel.

Thanks to our friends, Julie and Rhett, who forced us to remember what Valentines Day is about and made it so much fun in the process.