Happy Valentines Day! No one will tell...

    <3<3<3<3 I love Valentines day.  Everyone who knows me well knows that it is my favorite holiday.  I can always count on Valentines day being a drama free holiday.....or can I?  I guess it's not a holiday without a little family drama.  I think Lifetime set up their movies to be Valentine drama appropriate hence the T.V. movie cult classic "No one Would Tell." Starring Candace Cameron and Fred Savage, behaving like a savage.

     I got to start celebrating early at the retirement home last night (2/13).  They had a "Sweetheart Dance," for the residents and I volunteered to help. They had the dance in their ballroom/synagogue.  There were tables and twinkly lights, a bar, and yummy desserts.  Most of the residents  had walkers or wheel chairs so there wasn't a lot of dancing but the band was great.  One of the employees has a nephew who goes to a performing arts high school and his band played.  They were amazing.  I enjoyed watching the residents interact.  You can tell they look forward to these events.  Some of them got really dressed up.  At the end we danced Hava Nagila, which was my first time.  We had to dance around in a circle holding hands.  I loved it.  I cannot get enough of these people.  They are so wonderful and they bring so much happiness to my life.  You can't be afraid of aging when you're around them. There are way more women too, which I think is great, they're just like girlfriends in school. I could not wait to spend time with them on Valentines day at the Chinese Gardens.

    

  My day started out well in my cute little Valentine pinafore. I was so excited to wear it and I saved it for Valentines Day.  I first went to see my writing teacher for a conference about my first paper.  She said that I received one of the highest scores in the class.  The day started out well.  I went over to the student union to have a lovely visit with my good friend Kosar.  She's a pre-dental student also. We had a nice visit catching up and then she took a picture of me in my pinafore.  After I saw the picture I decided I needed to put some makeup on.

       Much better.  I am starting to realize why older women wear makeup.  I used to think it made them look older but it makes me look younger.  Who needs botox?
       After school I went over to the retirement home and we took a small group of women to the Lan Su Chinese Gardens, for a short tour and delicious tea and dumplings in the tea house. We literally stuffed our faces and drank the most delicious tea, my favorite is the jasmine pearls green tea.   One of the women in my group has some short-term memory loss so she would get excited about where we were once every fifteen minutes or so.  She said "I wasn't expecting this!  How wonderful!" She was cute. They were preparing for an end of Chinese New Year festival that I really wanted to go to but it was sold out:(

 

The Tea House

The tour guide said that this would have been the house that the daughter lived in where she would spend all day working on her embroidery.  I can't imagine having that huge place all to myself.  Eventually she would marry some dude her parents picked out and move away. When you walk into the tea house the most amazing green tea and dumpling smell envelopes you.  I couldn't get enough of the smell.

                                                                        

 This guy was playing traditional Chinese music in the tea house. I did not find out what the instrument was called but he played it non-stop for the hour we were in there.  It was a little irritating it has a high-pitched whiny sound.

This was a tea egg.  The egg is served with the shell and you can see the stain from the tea in the shell.  It looks disgusting but it was so delicious. I wish we would have ordered more than one.

We ordered baked tofu and buns.  The buns had spinach in them.  All the food was vegetarian and had so much flavor.  I was in food heaven.

This is a dumpling and the baked tofu.  The dumplings were amazing and I think I ate about five of them.

     For dessert we had green tea moon cake (shown), dried mango (shown), and a coconut tart.  The desserts were delicious.

     After we went to the Chinese Gardens I went to the grocery store and bakery to get some things for our dinner in.  I really didn't want to go out.  I knew the crowded restaurants would make me anxious and reservations were at ten o'clock.  I'm usually in bed by nine. Maybe that is why I get along with old people so well?  Anyway, Tony came home and he gave me the cutest vintage Valentine card.

We ended up ordering takeout and snuggling with the dogs.  A perfect Valentines day for us!