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" Sweet Roses My most romantic Valentine&amp;#039;s Day was last year. My husband kept me completely in the dark about what he was doing. At lunch that day, he called me to tell me to go and look in my car. There, I found a note saying, &amp;quot;Roses are red, chrysanthemums are blue...&amp;quot; Lo and behold, there was a blue chrysanthemum on the seat of my car. When I got home, there were rose petals on the doorstep. I went inside and saw a rose-petal path leading all the way to a table, where he had laid out a dozen roses and a gift basket full of bath gels and soaps. Then I found the rest of the poem! It was so romantic. The rest of it read: &amp;quot;Chocolates are sweet and so are you.&amp;quot; He had attached a chocolate rose to that card.  \u2014Angela Weaver Baby, What Baby? As silly as this may sound, on Valentine&amp;#039;s Day three years ago, I had lunch with my husband at Burger King. Once we sat down with our chicken sandwiches, I announced I had taken a pregnancy test that morning. Instantly, he was elated \u2014 but I told him not to get too excited, as we weren&amp;#039;t sure just yet. The line on the test was very, very faint. Then, I took the strip of paper from the test out of my purse and slid it across the table toward him. The smile across his face let me know it was for sure. He was so happy that it made me cry.  When I got home from work that night he had a Valentine&amp;#039;s card waiting for me, expressing how happy he was about my &amp;quot;possible&amp;quot; pregnancy. To this day, I will never forget that Valentine&amp;#039;s Day \u2014 even if our &amp;quot;romantic meal&amp;quot; was a Burger King lunch! From now on, Valentine&amp;#039;s Day will always be a time of celebrating the beginning of our new life as a family. It&amp;#039;ll be a &amp;quot;family&amp;quot; holiday that includes Camryn in whatever plans we make!  \u2014Jeni1072 Wedding Surprise! A few days before the holiday, my boyfriend bought me a wonderful card with old-fashioned lace, a dozen red roses and a large box of dark chocolate-covered cashews. I was floored by the gesture. But then he asked me what I was doing for a three-day holiday weekend that was coming up. I just thought we were getting away for a fun-filled weekend of gambling in Nevada. We arrived on a Friday morning, went to our room and unpacked. Then we went downstairs for some gambling. That night, as we were going to bed, he knelt down on one knee, with the ring in one hand and a rose in the other. He said, &amp;quot;What are you doing tomorrow at 12 noon? How about marrying me?&amp;quot; Then he told me of all his secret prearranged plans. I was so shocked, I just cried like a baby! Of course I said yes! He had bought our wedding rings, reserved a small chapel on the river and a moonlight boat cruise up and down the Colorado River, with a candlelight dinner and cocktails. The wedding was beautiful! That was six years ago, and it still feels like yesterday. We are a very happy couple. Even still, my hubby now always has some kind of a special, secret surprise for me, all during our six years of marriage so far. \u2014Honeygirl45 Girls&amp;#039; Night In Once upon a time, there was a group of friends who found themselves dateless on Valentine&amp;#039;s Day. So they all decided to make a group night of it \u2014 complete with spiked lemonade out of lovelorn lemons.  This describes a recent Valentine&amp;#039;s Day of mine. I have to say, it was one of my most fun, most relaxing Valentine&amp;#039;s Day ever. We exchanged little kid valentines (our motto was: The cheesier the better) and bought each other drinks. We had a multicourse dinner and toasted each other between each course. The best part of the night was when we went around the table complimenting each person \u2014 everyone said one good thing about every other person at the table. It was really funny, really sweet and truly touching \u2014 everything a valentine should be. \u2014CMJulia      Artistic Romance For a number of years, I worked exclusively from home as a freelance book editor. One year, my husband took the day off from work on Valentine&amp;#039;s Day, but he left the house before we had a chance to talk.  I worked that entire day, and as the hours ticked by I wondered what had happened! In fact, by around 4 p.m. I was feeling downright pouty that my guy had taken Valentine&amp;#039;s Day off and then spent the day without me.  I quickly changed my tune when he came home. I found out that he&amp;#039;d sold one of his prize possessions (worth hundreds) and then drove a total of four hours to buy me a framed print by my favorite artist, who happened to be in an art show two hours away. It was such a grand gesture in my eyes. Some women like diamonds \u2014 I like Native American art!  Oh, in case you&amp;#039;re wondering about the print: It&amp;#039;s called The Taking of Mary Jemison by Robert Griffing. It&amp;#039;s the story of a woman from Gettysburg, PA, who was taken captive during the French &amp;amp;amp; Indian War and was adopted by the Seneca. After the end of the war, she willingly stayed with the Seneca and eventually became the owner of much land.  This picture doesn&amp;#039;t do it justice, but check out a copy of the print. \u2014Melgold A Family Affair My most romantic Valentine&amp;#039;s Day was about six years ago. My husband works rotating 12-hour shifts, so sometimes on special days he isn&amp;#039;t around much. But this one particular Valentine&amp;#039;s Day he was coming home at 8 a.m. off of the midnight shift. At this point, my two daughters were not yet in school full time, and my oldest was still only on afternoon kindergarten \u2014 so we were all usually at home when my hubby would get in from work.  So when we got up at 8:30, my husband had a special present waiting for each of us at our usual seats around the breakfast table. There were a dozen roses at my seat! But what really made it the most special Valentine&amp;#039;s Day was that in front of each of my daughters&amp;#039; seats was a single rose. I was so overcome that I was in tears. The simple gesture was so touching because it showed me how fortunate I was to have found and married the most wonderful, considerate man \u2014 and father \u2014 possible. \u2014Tammyw26 Little Surprises My most romantic Valentine&amp;#039;s Day was last year. Neither my boyfriend nor I had a lot of money, so we agreed that we wouldn&amp;#039;t really celebrate. We chose to put what little money we had together and try to go to dinner. After dinner at a local place we headed out to the car. To my surprise, there were two dozen gorgeous pink roses in the driver&amp;#039;s seat of my car. He had his mother put them there while we were eating dinner. It was the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me! \u2014Clairicutie Gifts from the Heart Over the years, my husband, a high school English teacher, has written poetry about his feelings for me. In fact, I am currently compiling 10 years worth of romantic poetry and love letters into a beautiful album. Each Valentine&amp;#039;s Day, I receive a new poem from him.   So some girls can get their diamonds and pearls, I&amp;#039;ll take his poetry from the heart any day! Anyone can go to the store and blow big bucks on jewelry and candies. It takes a real man to speak from the heart, and that is truly sexy!  \u2014Realartist Honeymoon in Vegas My husband and I got married on Valentine&amp;#039;s Day. We chose that day because it&amp;#039;s the anniversary of the first day we kissed. That was also the very first time we realized we liked one another. See, we hated each other at first \u2014 I couldn&amp;#039;t even stand the sight of him, but all that changed. So we decided to be married on that day in Las Vegas.  The day of our wedding, it seemed everything in Vegas was running late \u2014 including the ceremonies. I didn&amp;#039;t think we&amp;#039;d make our vows before midnight but we did, at 11:57 p.m. To top it off, when our minister read the vows, he said, &amp;quot;Will you, George, take Martha to be your wedded wife?&amp;quot; It was like, &amp;quot;Huh? I&amp;#039;m Yvonne and his name is Paul.&amp;quot;  Okay, so it wasn&amp;#039;t exactly romantic, but we were in love and that&amp;#039;s all that mattered. And needless to say, this year will be our 16th wedding anniversary, and we still bust up laughing about that day every time we think of it. \u2014Pnythom Untiring Devotion For the first Valentine&amp;#039;s Day my husband and I celebrated as an engaged couple, he engineered a really big surprise for me. Here&amp;#039;s what happened: I worked with his best buddy, so he conspired with his friend to keep me inside my building so I couldn&amp;#039;t see that my car was missing from the parking lot. My fianc\u00E9 had taken my car at lunchtime and had four brand-new tires put on. He also washed and waxed the car, changed the oil and placed a dozen long-stem red roses on the front seat.   I got off work that day and saw my car all cleaned up. At first I just figured he had washed it \u2014 how sweet. Then I realized that my tires still had the little rubber nubbies on them \u2014 NEW TIRES! Then I saw the box of roses sitting on my front seat. I was in tears. Who knew four new tires could be so romantic?  \u2014Charalynn A Blast from the Past I was a single mom for most of my kids&amp;#039; childhoods \u2014 I mean  terminally single, after a second short and disastrous marriage: homebody, not looking, not really thinking about it. That is when a restaurant owner here in town who knew me (I had formerly had a restaurant here too) decided to play matchmaker.  He was a customer that she was fond of, a single dad, homebody, not looking and not really thinking about it either, and being pursued by some women he politely tolerated. She called me to ask if she could give him my number. Then she called him and told him to call me. About a week passed before my phone rang. We had a great conversation, and he asked if he could call me the next evening. After a few nights of long conversations, he asked if he could take me out for a while (sight unseen) and talk in person, in a neutral spot, for about an hour and half. We set it up. Mind you, we were 48 years old. Blind dating at that age can be frightening. But we felt good about what we had heard from each other over the phone.  I ran home from work, showered, dressed, and felt giddy as a schoolgirl when the doorbell rang.  And there he stood, the REALLY CUTE GUY from the high school coed track team that I never got to know before he moved away in 1971! And there I was, the object of his high school fantasies, looking back at him! We both started laughing so hard, we had to sit down on the front porch. We were both a little worse for wear since high school, but not much changed!  We had a wonderful evening, and we are still holding hands in public and calling to say, &amp;quot;I miss you, I love you&amp;quot; during work. We have been inseparable partners for almost two years. He has held my hand through the birth of my three grandsons, and I have held his hand through the funeral of his middle son.  I think I have found my life partner. I&amp;#039;m 50, so it&amp;#039;s about time. And on a blind date... I suppose it&amp;#039;s like the grab bag of baseball cards you gamble on. There just might be one in there that is worth a million.  Danny and I spend all of our time at home, when we are not working. There is nothing outside of there we really care about much. We cook together, garden, work on house projects, walk our dogs, and mostly laugh a lot. And we set the alarm early so that we don&amp;#039;t forget to spend 20 minutes (two taps on the snooze button) every morning just holding each other tightly, just in case it is the last chance we get.  \u2014K_roni Where There&amp;#039;s a Will, There&amp;#039;s a Way My then-boyfriend (now husband) and I had been dating for only about three months when Valentine&amp;#039;s Day rolled around, and I wanted to surprise him with a romantic home-cooked meal. At the time I was living in a very tiny apartment.  I went shopping and purchased ingredients for dinner (baked chicken in sauce, wild rice and glazed baby carrots), wine, flowers, tablecloth, candlesticks, fancy napkins \u2014 the whole nine yards! But by the time I returned home and started preparing the food, I realized I had forgotten one crucial thing \u2014 my tiny apartment lacked a dining area. Where was I going to put all of this stuff?  I decided to improvise by converting my living room coffee table into a dining room table. I dressed it up with the tablecloth, set the table with the napkins and place settings, lit the candlesticks, then separated the flowers and set them up all over the room. In lieu of chairs, I pulled a couple of cushions off the couch for us to sit on. When my boyfriend walked through the door, he was so surprised and very touched by the effort I had made.  The meal was delicious, and while we ate we both laughed over our little makeshift dining room. It wasn&amp;#039;t fancy, but in our eyes it was absolutely perfect. Then he surprised me by giving me a gold and diamond heart-shaped necklace. He told me, &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s the only &amp;#039;first Valentine&amp;#039;s Day&amp;#039; we&amp;#039;ll ever have, so I wanted to make it unforgettable.&amp;quot; I&amp;#039;ve had to replace the chain a couple of times thanks to my playful toddler, but I&amp;#039;ve worn this necklace practically every day since!  \u2014Winc_mama A Group Proposal My most memorable Valentine&amp;#039;s Day was last year, when my husband proposed to me. He has two kids from his previous marriage, and I have two from my previous marriage. All four kids knew he was going to propose for about two months, and they all kept the secret! (He told them because he wanted to make sure they were all okay with him asking me to marry him.)  Valentine&amp;#039;s Day was on a Saturday last year, and we cooked breakfast for the kids as usual, and then he told me that he wanted me to take a shower before I got my gift. I had to let him know when I was ready to come downstairs. I got the okay to come down but was told to go to the living room and sit on the couch. He then gave me a very nice card, which said on the last page: &amp;quot;The only thing left is for you to be my wife.&amp;quot; I looked at him, and then the kids came out of the kitchen holding a box he had made. In the box was a Cupid teddy bear and my engagement ring. In front of all the kids, he said, &amp;quot;I love you. Will you be my wife?&amp;quot; I immediately burst into tears of joy. What a memory!  \u2014Snshne123 Man&amp;#039;s Intuition One Valentine&amp;#039;s Day, I was especially tired and cranky. My husband took the kids (we have four) and me out for lunch. When we came back home, I sent him to the store on an errand. I was shocked when he came back with a pregnancy test! I gave him an evil glare and snapped at him, because together, we have plenty of kids, all very close in age. I didn&amp;#039;t think we needed another at that point.  I went ahead and took the pregnancy test, and it was positive! I still don&amp;#039;t know how my husband knew! After a bit of crying and worrying, the happiness set in, and six years later, we can&amp;#039;t imagine our lives without Brittany Layne. I think it will always be my favorite Valentine&amp;#039;s Day. \u2014CMElizabeth "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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