February: A Month for Love & Gary's Bday!

Ah, February....the month of love.

Obviously there's things like Valentine's Day to look forward to, but for Gary and I, this is the month of "Krismitty!" If you haven't figured out what the heck that means yet, it's our nicknames "Krissy" and "Smitty" combined. This was proclaimed years ago by our friend Jen DeCicco, right around the "Brangelina" days. :)

This past year, we were celebrating our 4 year anniversary (Feb. 5th) of officially being a couple. We wanted to keep things low key since all efforts were being focused on our big day, so we decided to combine Valentine's Day and our "anniversary" celebration in one nice dinner.

Being the thoughtful romantic he is, Gary surprised me with a BEAUTIFUL bouquet of flowers delivered to my work! In his note with the flowers, he mentioned he wanted this Valentine's to be especially memorable as it will be the only one we spend engaged. He made me feel so special! I surprised him with concert tickets to a show he'd been really wanting to see, The Getup Kids.

We later went to this really awesome steakhouse called Ruth Chris, where we wine and dined on some scrumptious food. Of course, I had to get my chocolate dessert too.

Being classy as we're waiting for our table at Ruth Chris

We also celebrated Vday by attending the "Valentine Rendezvous" benefit for the American Red Cross. The event was held at a Disney resort, and had great food, drinks, and dancing, plus we got to get all fancified which is always fun!

After fast forwarding a week later to Feb. 20th, Gary's birthday was here before we knew it! We got a group of people together and instead of going downtown like we normally do, decided to hit up the Winter Park area. It was definitely an ...ahem...interesting night for sure. :)

First off, we explored this new seafood restaurant we'd been wanting to try. The shrimp and grits had some gross red stuff on top that I hated, but besides that I guess it was okay (I wouldn't go back though). Then we hung out at a vintage-inspired bar, migrated to an Irish bar to drink and play darts, and finally ended up at a sake bar across the street. The sake bar was having open-mic rap night, and Gary was dancing up a storm. I guess you can say the night was eclectic! Here's a video of Gary being serenaded by the band at the Irish bar....

I also surprised Gary with the other set of concert tickets he'd been eying, Bright Eyes. Aside from that, on his actual birthday, the day after we partied, I took him to a nice brunch and got us tickets to go on the relaxing Winter Park boat tour...something we always wanted to do. This was a great way to unwind from the weekend birthday festivities.

Relaxing and enjoying nature (and each other) on the Winter Park boat tour

Yep, February was definitely a fun-filled month! Although, next year we'll be celebrating our official anniversary as a newly married couple in September! Can't wait!

XoXo

Krissy