The Day I Said Yes! - Valentines Day

❤ Valentines Day 2013 ❤

The night air was crisp, snow had fallen the day before leaving a scattered white coat sparkling like diamonds in the moonlight. Inside candles are lit, a warm glow kisses faces of generations young and old. Laughter can be heard along with the orchestra of knives and forks playing religiously against plates. But there is only one thing on my mind. Him, he's as handsome, if not more so than the first day I met him. He sits calmly next to me, then he smiles. I could just stay there and gaze at him forever, but that could get a tad bit awkward after awhile and I'm pretty sure the owners of the restaurant might be a little aggravated that they can't reuse the table. I had no idea what was about to happen.

Earlier that day I had made breakfast for us both. It was supposed to turn out like this...

to find out how to do this click here

but it didn't turn out quite as good. The bacon roses had no stems to be pedestalled upon because for some reason no where close to me sell fake roses any more? Which meant I had to improvise. I carved leaves out of pancakes, and placed them, as best as I could, on a bed of scrambled eggs. It seemed to go down well with Ralph. I mean, bacon roses? How could you resist?
After, I presented him with a bouquet of flours, yes I spelled that right, FLOURS, not flowers. As a cook I thought it would be funny. Throughout the day I surprised him with silly little things like this, it brightened up my day just to see the look on his face.

Weeks in advance I had booked a room at our local and favourite B&B
Yann's at Glenearn House.

It's become a family tradition to stay here on Valentines Day. 

After I came back from my nail appointment, something I barely ever do these days, we got ready and I sent Ralph downstairs early to order drinks in the lounge, while I sneakily decorated our room

I placed heart confetti on the bed that I recycled from newspaper. And a sinful jumbo Toblarone!
I'd also made my own hearts out of pink card with little notes that said things like "You're my cup of tea", "Care for a spoon?", or "Give me a little sugar". I also placed the worst heart banner ever made on the full length mirror that I made out of crocheted string and newspaper hearts. Then I realized I'd forgotten another bouquet I'd made out of sweets, which I gave to Ralph the next day. 

I was so excited, maybe a little more than a respectable adult should be on, well, any day of the year. I was all dressed up, something that both of us don't do as much as we used to due to being parents now. Our wardrobe consists of sweats, PJs and work clothes. I'm not complaining, I only get dressed if I know I have to work or we're expecting company, I'd happily live in pyjama's if I could. But not today! Today I looked spiffy, and so did Ralph!

Dr.McCoy is being pervy in the background.

When I got down stairs I was welcomed by the beautiful smell of French cuisine, a roaring fire, Valentines day champagne, and food tasters. The setting was more magical than ever. It was almost distracting me from the fact that I really missed my son and wondered how he and the grandparents were doing, if I'd forgotten to pack something in his over night bag, and, oh stop it, he's fine! 

We had a beautiful meal, Then I brought out my very last surprise (That he knew about, as he had yet to see upstairs) A quiz....now most people probably would be like, what? Really? A Quiz? But you see, Ralph is a quiz man. I had competing against him as I have no chance, along with most other people. But this one had a twist. It was a quiz based on the show from the late 60s called The Newly Wed Game. Now keep in mind, I had no idea what was going to happen later. Ralph thought this was funny, he indulged me and proceeded to play the game.

To see what I'm talking about click here to check out the game from The Dating Diva's.

We found out really how much we pay attention to each other, surprisingly a lot more than I thought!? Then to our surprise Yann's brought out their Valentines Day Quiz! We laughed, proceeded to fill in the answers, we lost because I kept changing my mind but we didn't care as it was just nice to be enjoying each other. The food, where do I start? We ordered to much, again, my fault, the drinks, this time we drank too much, this was Ralph's fault :D We didn't have dessert, well not in the restaurant anyway, and before your dirty mind wonders that's NOT WHAT I MEANT! Remember the Toblarone?
After what has to be my third bathroom break, I came back to the table to find a beautiful hand made glass box on the table. 

I sat down at the table, looked at Ralph, who smiled and then I proceeded with.
"I SAID NO PRESENTS!"
He looked at me understandably annoyed and told me to open it. I sighed, still completely clueless, and looking back on it, stupid, then lifted the lid.

There it sat, surrounded by white silk, a ring with Rohan's (and Ralph's) birth stone with two triquetra's guarding it on either side. Triquetra is a celtic symbol of love, honour and protect. But most people know it as one lady said later on "That symbol from Charmed!" .... yes, the symbol from Charmed :/

Well as you can imagine I was quite shocked, and a little confused until Ralph got down on one knee, then my heart started racing and I couldn't breath very well, if I'm right the same thing happened to him, or so it looked. We both welled up a bit, or if you know Ralph then, no he didn't well up at all! I don't know what you're talking about? After a little time passed he finally managed to ask the question. And after a little more time, when I finally learned how to speak again I of course said yes. You can never say no to that face anyway! The staff came out clapping and congratulated us both with, you guessed it, more champagne! Then I spent most of the evening fixed on my hand and speechless.

With all this I'd completely forgotten about upstairs, so it was funny when we finally got back to our room and I burst out with an "Oh yeah! Toblarone?"
Ralph grabbed his belly in disgust as we were grossly full from dinner, yet we had some anyway. I put on some tea and we went to bed.
The next morning I couldn't believe it when I woke, at first thinking it was a dream until I saw the ring on my finger. The room was hot from the scorching heaters that we spent most of the night figuring out how to turn off? What made it worse was upon opening the curtains we were met with blinding sunlight that humidified the room to sauna level, so we promptly went down for breakfast.

The restaurant was empty due to it being a week day no one but us had stayed over. The rooms were lit up by the beautiful morning sun, music echoed from the kitchen and a chipper Yann (The owner along with his wife Shari of this beautiful place) came whistling into the dining room to great "The appy couple" as he put it with his strong french accent. A breakfast buffet of milk, orange, yogurts, toast, cereal, fruit, etc. were spread out for us and the chalk board had been changed to the breakfast menu, or full cooked breakfast, chocolate crepes or Eggs Benedict. Because I was still full from the night before Chocolate crepes and Eggs Benedict sounded too rich so I went for Full Cooked, but really I could have just had an orange juice and I would have been fine. Ralph ordered Eggs Benedict, something I ate a lot of from both Yanns and their other restaurant called The Lounge while I was pregnant with Rohan, so naturally all it reminds me of now is morning sickness sadly. Ralph regretted it as he managed half way through and felt sick for over eating, I stuffed myself as you cannot resist anything at Yanns once it's placed in front of you, the taste and aroma are so plesent you stop caring that you couldn't fit another bite. It's surely is my kind of heaven!