What's the best Valentine's bouquet ever?!?

Like most of our blog posts, we're late in wishing a "Happy Valentines Day!" This year we celebrated our 41st Valentines day together. Denisa thought we had agreed to celebrate with a nice meal followed with an evening of dancing. That would certainly have pleased her. But Mark had more elaborate plans. She figured it out when she opened the motor home door after a two-hour line dance class and an enticing smell greeted her. (Does that peak your interest?)

Mark had been plotting his strategy for some time, googling interesting valentine bouquet ideas. We are familiar with edible fruit bouquets that are made from colorful assorted fruit. Mark knows that Denisa loves fruit. But what is the one snack that she loves even more? After 41 years he knows that she loves pickles, so he did what any romantic husband would do. He set out to create a pickle bouquet.

He used the jar from her favorite brand of "wickles" (wickedly spicy pickles) for his vase and worked upwards. He knows that Denisa also loves a snack of cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and carrot sticks. So he added those into his aromatic arrangement of goodies. The attention to detail was awesome, as he even did some spiral cutting for variety. He added fresh parsley and pickled red peppers to add texture and aroma. Delightful!

The enticing aroma that greeted Denisa was symbolic of the good feeling that she always gets when coming "home" to the motor home and Mark after a tough morning of dancing. But there's more to the Valentine present. To the right is a package of four chocolate-covered strawberries. To the left is a bag containing a new fit-bit watch. In the center is a beautiful card that said mushy sweet things that she really appreciated hearing. Denisa is one very lucky Valentine!

On top of all that delicious and thoughtful Valentine's goodness, we also had a night with a nice meal and dancing. We had purchased tickets for the Bentsen Grove Valentine banquet and dance. After eating an Italian meal and heart-shaped dessert, we took a picture under the red arbor.

Mark had two dates that evening, as we took Denisa's Mother out as well.

As we wander God's wonders, Denisa feels loved every day. But there's nothing quite like a pickle bouquet to make a girl feel extra special on Valentine's Day!