Camping in the living room still beats camping in the rain

There are holidays and then there are holi-weeks.

This was one of those; one where everything feels like some sort of celebration; each detail is an event building towards something. For example, today is President's Day, but I don't think it will get a full weeks worth of attention, let alone a happen-to-channel-surf-my-way-onto-the-parade-today acknowledgment.

This holi-week was not necessarily all about yesterdays Valentine's Day. Let me explain:

This week included

# 1: a celebration of homemade apple crisp while watching the Biggest Loser with our friends, Emily & Jeremy C. I admit it's easier than it seems to sit on the couch eating hunks of butter and brown sugar while people are working off half their body weight.

# 2: a celebration of the Orrico family's love of Jack Bauer, and watching dad do the same thing with mama's homemade oatmeal pancakes he's done for 25 years: stack them with apple sauce, strawberry yogurt, peanut butter, and maple syrup. Divine comfort.

#3 : A celebration of our cozy, everyday friends, the Andrews; they came over for some fresh salmon and classic cocktails. We wandered in the Capitol Hill rain over to the Pike/Pine Corridor to browse a few creepy bars trying to be galleries and watch some late night soccer.

(The beautiful Mrs. Andrews, at The Tamarind Tree last week)

#4: A celebration of Canadian mediocrity! No, the opening ceremonies were beautiful...but if I wasn't chatting with Kellie and Jessica, snuggling with the Non-Scotsman in the comfort of the Andrews basement, and sipping a glass of Columbia Valley syrah...well.

#5: A final luncheon at Cafe Presse with Emily J. and Mrs. Andrews before Emily has her 2nd beautiful baby!

(Waiting for dear Emily J. to have Baby Boy #2!)

#6: A celebration of Chinese New Year on Saturday with the Chengs and the Butterworths. It was a complete and raging success, thanks to hours and hours the Chengs spent in the kitchen. I think this year is going to be full of wealth and health after that bean curd dish...

(Joe Cheng removing the nipples from the pork belly. ugh)

That really was just the beginning of this weeks events; so by the time we came to Valentine's night we were feeling full: satisfied: loved. I made some homemade pizza, the Non-Scotsman crafted us a few cocktails.

(Salami pizza for him, arugula/pear/gorgonzola and lemon salad for her)

And at 8:00pm we decided we had to go camping.

So we did, in the comfort of our 425 sq/ft, murphy-bedded home.

Our campsite was complete when we brought into the tent a few children's books about monsters being scared of people at night. And read them, of course.

Love is acting like kids in a tent in your living room, and then pretending to be adults and doing your taxes. Love is when the every day is a celebration of simply doing it together.