Hallmark Conspiracy ?

So next week my girls group we will be doing our 2^nd annual Valentines Party.

We decided to do this for a few reasons:

1) A few of my girlfriends are strong, independent, single ladies.

2) Some of our husbands just conveniently forget about V-day.

3) Some of our husbands just despise Valentines Day and don’t understand why it’s an important day to us chicks. Some of them even like to use the cop-out theory that Valentines Day is a Hallmark conspiracy. Well, maybe it is….but I think for the majority of girls, it is still an important day.

I for one, cannot help but get sucked in every year. The red and pink slap you in the face every time you walk into any store…including the grocery store. Hell, I think the grocery store is the worst….they have the pink and red out when the Christmas stuff goes on clearance. If you try to play it off and tell your guy that it isn't a big deal to you, you'll just end up with hurt feelings on Valentines day...and that doesn't do anyone any good.

Regardless of the alleged Hallmark Conspiracy, it is an important chick day…always has been, always will be. For me it started really early in life. Before boyfriends, my dad always got my sister and I flowers, or candy, or both. As we grew up and started getting flowers from boys, he started giving us each a box of Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies…we liked those more than any heart shaped box of candy.

Side Note: I remember one year my dad gave us each a box of chocolate covered cherries. (Well that is just gross.) So my sister left her box on top of her stereo speaker which was on the floor. Our Sheltie dog Tippy got a hold of that box, chewed through the plastic wrapper, and ate ALL the chocolate covered cherries. When my sister got home and realized Tippy had eaten the entire box, we all freaked out and knew we were going to have a dead dog on our hands soon. Surprisingly not, a few hours later Tippy had a very upset stomach and gave my sister her chocolate covered cherries back.

Back to the Girls Valentines Party....

We had so much fun with our party last year that we decided to do it again this year. Instead of at a loud happy hour spot downtown, we will have our party at one of the girl's houses. (We've been doing this more often lately because it's a little more intimate in that we don't have to yell over the music and the happy hour crowd.)

For fun we do a Valentines version of the secret Santa thing. We draw names and buy a small gift for the person we drew. Last year we did $15 max dollar limit, and this year we are doing $10 max dollar limit.

(Because we are all saving for our 1st annual Girls Birthday Celebration Trip.) :-)

So for the next week I will be on the hunt for the perfect $10 Valentine. I don't want to do the boring bath soaps gift, and surely I can do better than a gift card....this is for someone I call one of my closest friends.

I am positive that I will find something completely cute and unique while I am out searching... but if you do have any suggestions, by all means, send them my way!

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Condo-Warming & Champagne lesson

Last night some friends and I "warmed-up" a friend's new condo with good talk, a nice spread of food, good wine, and good champagne...sorry, sparkling wine.
One of the girls taught the rest of us something new.....that it is only called Champagne if it comes from Champagne, France. Otherwise it should technically be called sparkling wine. The bottle we drank last night said Champagne on the label, but it was from California.

She was exactly right...here is what Wikipedia has to say about it:

Champagne is a sparkling wine produced by inducing the in-bottle secondary fermentation of wine to effect carbonation. It is produced exclusively within the Champagne region of France, from which it takes its name. While the term "champagne" is used by some makers of sparkling wine in other parts of the world, numerous countries limit the use of the term to only those wines that come from the Champagne appellation. In Europe, this principle is enshrined in the European Union by Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status. Other countries, such as the United States, have recognized the exclusive nature of this name, yet maintain a legal structure that allows longtime domestic producers of sparkling wine to continue to use the term "Champagne" under specific circumstances.

Overall the condo-warming party was nice get-together among friends and a perfect way to spend a rainy Wednesday evening. It is amazing how we all recognize and appreciate the great bonds of friendship that are growing and strengthening right before our eyes.

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