My boyfriend of 2.5 years and I live a little over 90 miles away from each other since I go to school here in Philadelphia and he stays back home at a Penn State sub-campus for the first two years of his degree. Since Valentine’s Day falls on a Wednesday this year, it’s a lot to travel that far just for one day, so we decided to celebrate the holiday together on Friday the 16th instead. We are a more private and reserved couple and like to keep our relationship just for the two of us, so when Valentine’s Day rolls around every year, we like to go all out.
He told me last week that he booked a reservation at my favorite restaurant in Bethlehem, PA called The Melting Pot. If you haven’t heard of it or been there before, you NEED to try it. It is a high-end pricey restaurant, however, so maybe just going for dessert is a good way to start. Because we don’t go there often and it’s a special occasion for the two of us, he got the entire four-course dinner for us together along with a bouquet of roses and a teddy bear for me this year! When he told me the plans, I was so excited I nearly screamed and gave him the biggest hug known to man. I’m just so grateful he is fortunate enough to be able to do nice things for me like that.
In return, I decided to get him a cute Valentine’s Day-themed bag with a lot of his favorite candy in heart-shaped boxes from Target (side note: if you need last-minute Valentine’s candy/baskets/cards, Target has an entire section of the store with everything you could need!). The bag has heart-shaped peanut butter cups, skittles, assorted milk, dark chocolates with golden retrievers on them (his favorite), a little stuffed smore plushie, some red bulls, a card, and an Amazon gift card.
I also wouldn’t be the person I am today without my amazing best friends here at school, so some of us made time on the actual holiday to have a “Galentine’s” dinner together. We plan on making pasta, garlic bread, and brownies for a candlelit dinner in our apartment after we go to a spin class on campus together in the evening. As much as Valentine’s Day is about celebrating the love between you and your partner, having friends to celebrate love with too is just as important. And perhaps even more important is finding time to celebrate the love for yourself as well. Don’t forget to treat yourself to something special this week too!