My Valentine.

I have always loved Valentine's Day. Call me a sucker, a fool to the "Halmark-created holiday", so be it. Why not welcome an excuse to be extra nice, do things for your friends and loved ones and who doesn't love an excuse to go out to eat?

This Valentine's Day definitely goes down in the books as one of my favorites. My Valentine this year was Mike, who just so happened to be my Valentine for the past 3 Valentine's Days.

On Valentine's morning, I dropped off a little present, an eclair and a note on his doorstep.

I was a little too cheap to buy real wrapping paper so I grabbed a Daily Universe from campus, luckily I had ribbon.

I made these cards for my roommates and had to snap a picture of Mike's suave friends as they were on their way to their V-day "mandate" to P.F. Changs.

Can you guess which card is for which roommate??

Right to left: [Natalie] this Selena Gomez song is mine and Natalie's jam, [Meegan] I make tons of cookies and David always jokes about how they're a temptation, [Nicole] my diet coke run partner for life!

Ladies, all these men are single, let me know if you want in. 

Mike told me to dress up all fancy and that he'd pick me up at 6:30, other than that I had no idea what we were going to do. He'd been super secretive the last few days running "errands," and I was just dying to know what he'd been up to. We had to run by his apartment really quickly because "he forgot something," and I walked into the most perfect dinner setting.

Mike and I love to go out to eat, it is one of our favorite things to do together. We go out so much that this was the perfect way to switch things up. We had the apartment to ourselves and I have quite the chef of a boyfriend.

How cute is this table? He did it all by himself! He found real China at D.I., the fancy goblets, bought a table cloth and a runner, folded the napkins like a cruise director and set two spoons and forks. He is just the cutest. 

Mike's always been a good cook, but his recent obsession with Chopped has thrown him into Emeril Lagasse status. He made a "Jenna Meal," as he likes to call it: artichoke dip, ranch chicken, and butter cake topped with Haagen Daz ice cream. After the meal we watched The Bachelor together (his suggestion!) and played scrabble together, my favorite game. 

I'm not a chocolate girl so flowers are definitely the way to my heart. Over the last 2 and a half years, I've received a lot of flowers from this boy. Last Valentine's Day I wanted to return the favor so I came up with the idea of "man flowers." I got gift cards to some of his favorite places to eat and taped them to green pipe cleaners and tied a bow around them. They've been a hit! I highly suggest the idea. 

Mike made these bouquets himself. He bought all the flowers individually, even the greenery, and put them together! 

I just have to take one minute to brag. This is too good not to.

Most boyfriends/fiances/husbands want to make their girl feel special on Valentine's Day so they buy her flowers and do things that she likes to do. Mike brought me two bouquets of flowers, cooked me dinner, learn how to set a table, watched The Bachelor and played Scrabble with me - this is some pretty fancy courting if I say so myself.

However, that is not even the best part. Mike bought my roommate and his sister a bouquet of flowers, a huge cookie, balloons, a basket full of candy and a homemade card. Who does that? Mike does that.

He is the sweetest boy I have ever met. He is so in tune with other people's feelings and wants everyone to be happy. He's the greatest guy I know and I'm glad there is a holiday that gives me an excuse to show him how special he is to me.