{My 3 Valentines}

This weekend, Tony and I celebrated our first Valentine’s Day as a married couple! (One of the many fun aspects of being a newlywed is you get to call every mundane thing a “first,” annoying everyone). Since it fell on a long weekend, we decided to drag the celebration out over three days. To us, the word “celebrate” means eating too much in sweatpants, which is exactly how we rocked our 3-day-V-Day… I’m keeping it going into the work week, inhaling a leftover brownie as I write this. And because Tony is the most romantic person I’ve ever met, he woke me up with a gift every morning (a coffee table book, a special “freezing” mug to keep my iced lattes chilly, camera lenses for my iPhone and a bracelet our friend Alana designed). In general, I think taking Valentine’s Day too seriously is silly; trying to make it the most ROMANTIC.DAY.EVER. puts too much pressure on everyone. But, I like any excuse to focus on love, whatever that means to you – and to us, it meant low-key time spent together with our dogs and friends, eating and laughing.

{Tony enjoying his Valentine’s Day presents – a foot massager and a chair massage thingy that looks more like an adult carseat}

Friday, we went on a triple date to Zoolander 2. I know people aren’t going crazy over it, but our pack loved it. Maybe it’s nostalgia because we all loved the first one so much. Maybe it’s because Kristen Wiig is a comedy goddess-genius. Maybe it’s because I went to college with Kyle Mooney and got to watch him steal the show. Maybe it’s because watching Will Ferrell as Mugatu will never, ever, ever get old for me. But it was everything we wanted it to be and we laughed the entire time.

{Zoolander 2 crew}

Saturday, Tony and I got up early to go to a spin class to try to get a head start on the damage we were planning to do to our bodies, food-wise. Tony sweated a couple gallons and I pretended to turn up the weight-dial on my bike so I spent most of the class going “downhill.” Then, I introduced my friend Christie to Runyon (I promised her girls hiking in crop tops and wedge sneakers and shirtless dudes running lines for auditions, all of them taking selfies. It did not disappoint.)

Then, we went to Jon & Vinny’s for lunch. She’d never been there either and, since I’d technically worked out twice, we decided that gave us permission to order pretty much everything on the menu. Pictured above: Avocado toast. Cornmeal fried onions. Meatballs. Not pictured, but also ordered: 2 pizzas, 1 plate of pasta and NO REGRETS.

{More of the treats I indulged in over the weekend}

Then I went home, made brownies with cream cheese frosting and we had friends over for more pizza. I repeat: NO REGRETS. (That’s a lie, I have so many regrets and so little self-control.)

{Kitchen “helpers”/scrap scavengers}

Sunday, actual Valentine’s Day, Tony got up early to go for a run while I stayed in bed spooning our 3 dog-babies. When I finally dragged myself up, I made us a breakfast that blended our favorite things: heart-shaped, dark chocolate & strawberry (me) protein (Tony) pancakes, with grilled chicken apple sausages. Then, because School of Rock is premiering next month, we got to go to a Grammy gifting suite. I had a terrific time, because while Tony was posing for photos and chatting with people, I was guzzling free booze and snacks while loading the bag with everything I could get my hands on (if I look like Kylie Jenner in any upcoming pics, know it’s because that lip plumper “Tony” snagged WORKS!)

Sunday night, we had two of our best friends over for a meal that would make a 4-year-old happy: Tony’s famous bacon cheeseburgers and my attempt at fancy mac & cheese. Tony killed it on the grill, per the usual. I, however, made several mistakes, including but not limited to: Not giving myself enough time to cook. Making myself a frozen negroni in the Vitamix before deciding to wing it without using a recipe. Then drinking champagne. All on an empty stomach. Gossiping while pouring the milk into the cheese sauce and realizing too late that I put 4x too much in. Quadrupling everything else to make up for it. Making enough, ultimately, for “an entire high school football team,” as Tony put it when I finally got the food on the table. Lots of lessons learned, guys (among them, that it’s not such a bad idea to just take a shower and go out to a damn restaurant on Valentine’s Day). But the silver lining of this story is that we had enough leftovers for roughly 20 people, which I made Tony scoop into paper bowls and drive around looking for homeless people to give them to. I hope they like pasta with gouda, brie and white cheddar as much as I do.

{Unrelated: Here is the Valentine’s Day text we got from my mom}

Monday (yesterday), I attended a class called “Body Challenge” super hungover. It was me and a bunch of models hopping around with hand weights; they looked like extras in a Taylor Swift video, and I looked like the “before” picture on those infomercials for diet pills that may or may not lead to an early death. Then, I came home and ate a few leftover brownies, met a girlfriend for lunch, and spent the rest of the day drinking leftover champagne (pink champagne, because V-Day you guys!)

How did you celebrate Valentine’s Day? Or are you one of those people who hates love? Either way, I hope your weekend was happy and full of as much food as ours!