I Heart V-Day

This was our first Valentine's Day as a married couple! Wooooo Hooooo. Last year Dereje and I spent Valentine's Day in Botswana at a benefit dinner for a local NGO. We were remembering about how very Botswana style it was. We got there promptly at 6:30 (the stated time the dinner was to start) and were, by far, the first ones there. In fact, the place wasn't even set up yet, so we got to sit and wait for a couple of hours until they were ready to start. I remember looking at Dereje around 8:30 thinking, "oh my god, I thought we'd be home by now."
We did finally manage to have dinner and listen to all of the speakers, and we actually got to leave around 10pm, just when all of the kids started to dance - just when I started to feel really old cause I was falling asleep in my plate.
This year was a little bit different. Dereje is currently studying very hard for his licensing exams, and I am very busy watching him study very hard for his licensing exam. So, no more dinners until 10pm (thank god)...instead, we have opted to go out to dinner over the weekend to celebrate Valentine's Day. But, just because we don't really have time to go to dinner doesn't mean that we didn't have time to exchange romantic stuff...
Like this hands free telephone thingy that Dereje gave me!
Yes, I may have flagged it, highlighted it, and, well, basically ordered it off of Amazon...but, honestly, I was so surprised (and delighted in my husband's good taste) when I got it! Dereje received (from his lovely wife) a new backpack to carry his school books in, and some new boxers because, frankly, I'm tired of washing the only three pair of boxers that he owns. So, really, we're pretty stylin' over here.
I also got a really cool gift from my parents for Valentine's Day. They gave me one of those jars from Costco that grows tulips. (Here's an online photo of what they look like when they're all grown up).

It's really neat to watch them grow. Right now my green stems are just over the tip of the jar, so I figure I'll have some blossoms by the middle of next week - some people may think that watching these things is like watching paint dry...but I think it's pretty much like watching tulips grow right in front of your eyes...It's way cool!