Happy Valentine’s Day! We don’t do much for it around here. Today, it’s just a normal workday for most of us though the preschool kids have their “party,” a pretty understated affair at the school. A special treat and then an exchange of Valentine’s day cards using brown paper bags the kids decorate themselves mostly with stickers.
Here at home, I planned on a simple dinner of waffles (they vetoed the idea of chocolate waffles!) and bacon. However, my husband was mentioning something about pizza last night so who knows. I did pick up some slice and bake cookies on sale so probably going to make those into cookie sandwiches (Why do we have so much marshmallow creme in the pantry??) along with some chocolate covered pretzels I promised J. Maybe we’ll all watch a movie or have a game night, clearly our Valentine’s Day is not planned out very well.
What is usually somewhat planned out is the annual Galentine’s Day adventure with my close friends! So I thought I’d share about that for this week’s Five on Friday hosted by My Creative Life.
ONE: Friendship Gift
While the gift of having a group of amazing friends for almost 25 years is certainly enough, we usually exchange small token gifts of friendship at our annual Galentine’s Day dinner. Here’s a glance at what I gave:
What’s in the bag?
Chocolates (Of course!) and some photos, one of which I framed. Then, I wrapped the framed photo in some Valentine’s Day tissue paper before putting them in the cloth bags. 
TWO: Outfit
I like to dress in something somewhat Valentine’s day related if only through the colors. I picked my red sweater (Chiefs fans tend to own lots of red, LOL!) and some black velvet pants.
THREE: Location
Since we’ve started celebrating Galentine’s Day, we’ve met at The Cheesecake Factory on the Country Club Plaza. It’s expensive, yes, but typically we only go once a year. J gave me a gift card for Christmas so that was nice. And it’s always been very good. I typically get the spicy vodka pasta, a cosmopolitan, and a slice of classic cheesecake with strawberry topping.
An added treat this year, they decided to leave the Plaza lights on until Valentine’s Day so we also got to see those.
(Dear Cheesecake Factory, you need to clean your windows!)
Thankfully as well, the weather held off until late Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning as a winter storm moved into our area.
FOUR: My Amazing Gifts
A funny thing happened this year as 3 of us had the exact same idea to do photo related gifts, framed photos and a picture coffee mug!
The other friends went a self-care route, we know each other well after almost 25 years! And some of us are very talented on top of that, look at the beautiful cardinal print my friend made for me.
FIVE: Thankful for Friendship
I’m thankful for all the friendships in my life whether they are new or life-long, work, in person or blogging friendships made over the Internet. I hope all of you reading this have many great friendships of all kinds as well!
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Happy Valentine’s Day, Friends! 
Happy Valentine’s Day! I really enjoyed the blog with its beautiful photos. We don’t celebrate it, but I find it funny to read how others do. Love,
Your Galentines day looks so much fun! Such a Great tradition. That cardinal print is beautiful. I hope you’re actual Valentine’s night with your family was good as well!