v-day offering

So with Valentine's Day just one week away, it's getting to crunch time for thinking about what one might get his or her honey.  Since mine is a dedicated reader of this blog, I can't very well spill the beans here and now, BUT I thought I'd share one of my previous present packages as inspiration for your brainstorming. 
(If need be - no judgment if you're a V-day hater.)

Now I LOVE giving gifts.  Any occasion - birthday, Christmas, promotion, MLK Day, a yoga class sans complaints - is an excuse to make the effort.  But it's not just the giving of it that gets me, it's the whole shebang - thinking up an idea, shopping for its elements, assembling and wrapping per requirements, and orchestrating the handover. 

For Stefan's 30th birthday, I presented him with 30 gifts - one for each year of his life. 

For his 31st, I decided to orchestrate a scavenger hunt around our apartment.  He'd be arriving home from a business trip in LatAm while I was at work, so I greeted him with the following brown paper bag:

Inside it was a note with clues for him to head to the fridge, where he found this little number:

With three delicious European cheeses inside.

Instructions to slice himself some bread (a freshly bought baguette was awaiting him on the counter) and enjoy a light snack were written on the bag.

On the back of the bag were clues for him to find his next bag:

Which led him to a stockpile of his favorite icy beverage - some deliciously sweet iced tea.

The hunt went along like this for quite some time as my inside-joke-ridden clues led him to some new West Elm lacquered desk organizers,

a bottle of port, a homemade cd of my fav running tunes,

and a hand-painted snack jar (which, at the time, was filled to the brim with gummy bears - his fav all-hours treats - but has since been cleared of its contents).

The hunt ended with a gift certificate to head to the sauna.  The European in him misses the lack of this fine tradition in the good old US of A, but I found a spot just blocks from our apartment with a killer sauna at not too high a price tag.  The instructions told him to take his clothes and return ready to head directly out to dinner.

When he returned, however, I was waiting with a house-full of friends, ready to toast him a happy, happy 31st.  We drank wine, ate homemade beef tartare, guac, and cheese (all of his favs), and never made it to our 10pm dinner reservation. 
All in all, a fabulous gift if I do say so myself.

What are your V-day plans?

xoxo
KK