Steph and Mike McDowell’s Blog

February 14, 2009

Our circle of friends forms a lot of traditions around celebrating the holidays. Valentine’s Day is no different. We started the tradition in 2000, when we were all single. We decided to have a Valentine’s Day dinner all those years ago to simply spend time with the ones we love (also, Steph apparently arranged it because she had a crush on me). There were six of us that first year, and there have been fluctuating numbers since then, but we had 15 people (and 3 babies!) this year. Plus, the majority of those in attendance are in relationships these days.

Since that first year, it was part of the tradition to get dressed up nicely – girls in gowns and men in slacks and ties. As you can see from the photos, everyone looked very nice. The girls cooked dinner – pork chops, mashed potatoes, side salad and brownies for dessert.

Steph and I host the event, and we also are in charge of the party programming (aka – games). The first game was called, “Guess Whose Lips?” The game is not as risque as the title may suggest (sorry, you sickos). We asked each guest to put on lipstick and kiss a blank square on a large poster board (which left a print of their lips). Nobody got to see which person kissed which square. We then asked people to guess which lips belonged to whom. This was a more difficult task than it seemed like it would be. You can see the photos of the board below. The luscious lips in square #8 are yours truly. Steph’s are #2 (apparently she messed up the first kiss). 

The second game was a version of Valentine’s Day Wheel of Fortune. I made the spinning wheel out of a lazy susan, and we used a large dry erase board for the puzzles. All of the puzzle answers were loosely themed around “love.” I played the role of Pat Sajak and Steph played Vanna White. Couples played for Valentine’s Prizes. 

We had a lot of fun hosting again this year and look forward to the next year. We hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day.