Happy Valentine's Day!

Greetings to all. We hope that Valentine's Day was all the you had hoped it would be.

Sasha and I started the day with a trip to Dominick's. Sasha's face in Dominick's is always the same "Wow ... this place is awesome!" Around every bend, his face lights up with the next glimpse of another favorite food item. I think with so much food around, he knows that he'll never go hungry again. We picked up some culinary delights and headed home.

After lunch, we decorated large sugar cookie hearts for Daddy for Valentine's Day. Sasha sampled one (just to make sure it was good enough for Daddy) and went down for his nap on a big sugar high. I missed the best photo op which would have shown red frosting all over his face. Frosting - yummy!

Sasha received his first Valentine's card from Katy Redding. She is a precious little girl that came home in November from Moscow. Her parents, Jan and Scott, had a journey that made ours seem like a picnic but I know they feel that it's all worth it now. She's a total doll. Sasha hasn't had the pleasure of meeting her in person but he's seen her photo and she's definetly what he would consider a "Pretty girl" (he's fascinated by pretty girls and started his admiration in the Moscow Marriot lounge and even now he lingers in front of the tv when Hannah Montana comes on.)

I spent the rest of the afternoon, prepping for our Valentine's Day feast (okay, okay ... it wasn't my normal feast but things change when you only have two hours a day to get things done). We dined on crab cake for our appetizer with a homemade garlic aoli sauce. Our second course was caesar salad (Nathan's fave), the third course was a lobster with a buerre blanc sauce (one of Tamara's fav - it's just hard to go wrong with lobster), and for the main course - duck breast with mashed sweet potatoes and asparagus. We had chocolate molten cake for dessert (chocolate - another Nathan fave). Okay, so it sounds kind of gourmet but I must confess that several elements were purchased but it was still very yummy. Oh .. and of course, Moet to wash things down with. Yummy.

Now, in your part of the country, you may think of traditional Valentine's Day icons like hearts and cupid. May I be the first to introduce you to the Valentine's Day doggie? (wouldn't you just figure that one of Sasha's first words would be doggie??)

It's really not a good time, until you can really mess with Blake. The look on his face is priceless.

Our daughter, Snickers Platt or Snickers P-C, as we sometimes call her. This is one of two natural habitats (my lap is her other choice as well as parked with her face right next to fire (she's no dummy! Notice her Texas Ranger collar - you can take the girl outta Texas but you can't take Texas outta the girl. And, now that it's winter there are many days when I'm sure she wishes she was still in Texas).

And, to finish the night off, there's nothing like seeing how Blake likes Redi Whip. Boxers are too much fun. Even as I type this in the wee hours of the morning, Blake wouldn't dream of not coming with me to keep me company. Boxers are such great friends (and SO much fun to mess with!!)