Valentinestag in Deutchland

Planning for and carrying out our usual Valentine's Day this year was more difficult than since we didn't have all our usual resources at hand. For example, making cookies was more difficult than usual with just one small cookie sheet, very small mixing bowls, and very limited counter space. Luckily, they still turned out well, and were enjoyed by everyone we shared them with.

We wanted to do something by ourselves on Valentine's Day. We hadn't gone out without Austin since getting here, since finding a baby sitter suitable for him hasn't been easy or convenient. Luckily, we were able to find a single sister in our ward who speaks English who was willing and available to watch him that evening. We were very excited to go out to dinner without him. Unfortunately, the first four or five restaurants Nate called that day to try to reserved a place for us were full. This surprised us since we thought Valentine's Day wasn't as big here. Eventually Nate found an Italian place in Mering, the next town over from us.

Unfortunately, the restaurant we went to was very very slow. Our reservation was at 7:00, and we arrived slightly earlier than that. We didn't get out until about 9:00. The food was good, and the restaurant even gave me a rose after dinner, which was a nice touch. It was a good rose too that has stayed looking nice all week. We hadn't planned on spending that long on dinner though, and we didn't have time to do much else that evening. We dropped some cookies off to some other ward members who lived nearby and went back home.

Another thing that I didn't have readily available this year was cardstock or other colored paper. I usually try to make Nate a nice Valentines card, but without any good paper to use that was difficult. I tried to find some good paper, but that also turned out to be difficult. Most of the cardstock we saw for sale cost -,65 €. That is around three to four times as much as I normally pay per sheet in the U.S., without taking the conversion rate into consideration (with the conversion rate, it is closer to four to six times as much). Eventually after asking around I found some less expensive thick colored paper at a Müller store (which is what some ward members described to me as the German Walmart, only much smaller).

I used the paper to create a small Valentine for Austin. We also gave him a wind up car, which was a souvenir from the Verkehrszentrum. Both were a hit. The card has been sitting on our kitchen table, and Austin frequently gets it down to look at it, "read" it, and show me the heart on the front.

Before finding the paper though, I decided to try something different for Nate this year since the traditional card didn't look like it would work out.

My gift to Nate was a figure of a knight, along with some high quality chocolate. He had noticed the knight while we were in a gift shop at Hohenschwangau Castle and mentioned that he liked it. I immediately started formulating ideas about giving it to him for Valentine's Day. I decided to make an animated card using Flash of a knight (him) in shining armor. This was my first attempt at such a project, so there was a huge learning curve. It ended up taking me a couple weeks to do, but it was worth it when it turned out and Nate liked it.

The audio was actually added after I presented the video to him. Adding the audio to flash wasn't initially working for me, so Nate helped me figure it out after the fact. I guess it wasn't all bad since Nate seemed to enjoy playing with putting the audio in.

Nate gave me a card, a Cadbury Wunderbar (telling me "Du bist wunderbar!"), and a chocolate bar charm for my charm bracelet. He explained that after all, one of the things we have been really enjoying here is the chocolate.

So, our Valentine's Day turned out to be fun. It was especially fun to share cookies with people. Everyone liked them. The missionaries seemed to especially enjoy our cookies, which they said where great since they were actually sweet (the pastries and other desserts here are very good, but not as sweet as what you normally find in the U.S.).