It's Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

As usual, I'm late getting out the holiday decor but apparently Spenser is on top of the situation.

When it comes to Valentine's Day there aren't many decorating options. Apart from the ubiquitous hearts, all I have is a string of lights, some kitchen towels and an assortment of empty, heart-shaped candy boxes. It took Burt and Ivy nearly forever to scatter a few hearts around and hang up the one string of lights. On the bright side, it shouldn't take too long to get it all down! 

This is embarrassing to admit to but I have a hard time tossing out empty, heart-shaped candy boxes. Sometimes I hang onto them for years. It's a silly thing to do and I try not to keep more than will fit into one plastic storage bin, along with the other valentine stuff. They're so pretty but hard to recycle.

My over abundance of empties (or trash, to be precise) is the by-product of the local Oaks Candy Store. The same family has been making hand-dipped chocolates, in the same building, since 1890. Who knows how long they have been supplying the hoarders in town with these retro boxes!

Occasionally I find a special one elsewhere, like this little gem that came from Target. It was on clearance after the holiday and the chocolate candy inside was really tasty.

You can actually strum the elastic strings but the best part has to be the pick!

Not all Valentine's candy comes in a fancy box and there is something to be said for the kind you can eat by the handful. M&M's are Ivy's favorite because they're colorful and not messy but it's not like they're going to melt in her hand anyway.

Since His Madness was up for baking some cookies, Ivy persuaded him to swap out the usual chocolate chips for her Cupid's Mix M&Ms.

Once they were baked, Burt shared his thoughts on M&M's versus chocolate chips in cookies. After a brief discussion a general consensus was agreed upon. 

While everyone liked the crunch from the M&M's, the chocolate chips tasted way more "chocolatey". The pink and white M&M's also failed to deliver aesthetically, so maybe the regular ones with brighter colors would've looked better? Guess we will just have to eat them up so we can try again!  

While the cookie were baking, Ivy decided to spiff up the coffee corner. As usual, it turned out to be more decorative than functional and with way more chocolate than beverages.  There are four different kinds of chocolate, no tea whatsoever to go in the pot, a jar of cocktail cherries, coffee and some spoons for stirring in the non-existent sugar. It needs some work. 

Or we could just face the fact that to us, this holiday is basically all about chocolate.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day!

Thanks for stopping by.