It is the thought that usually counts, but not on Valentine's Day.  On Valentine's Day, you have to shine.  You have to save all your creative juices for this occasion and wow your wife, girlfriend, or the woman you want to be your wife or girlfriend.

If flowers and candy are out – or at least not the main event – what can you get for her?

For the New Relationship

This can be awkward because you do not want to give a gift that says too much – but you also don't want to say too little.  These gifts say just the right amount:

• A fun (or romantic, cheesy, chick flick) movie night with gourmet popcorn.  It says you thought of Valentine's Day and want to spend it with her without screaming, “I LOVE YOU!”
• Donation to her favorite charity.  She'll love that you both thought of her and her interests, but again, it isn't too intimate for the new relationship.
• Tickets to an event (symphony, theater, sports, etc.).  Another way to say, “Let's spend this day together.”
• A treat for her dog or cat.  If you have just started dating, this can be a cute way to acknowledge the day without putting pressure on her or yourself.
• Make her dinner and have her favorite wine or beer.
• Hand-dipped gourmet chocolates, especially if they are homemade.
• A crafty piece of jewelry.  No, not a diamond.  If your girl wears bracelets, necklaces, or earrings, look at pieces from local artisans and on Etsy.  Choose something that she might want to wear to work or while kicking back – but nothing fancy or overly expensive.

For the Established Relationship

When your girlfriend or wife says she doesn't want anything on Valentine's Day, she's lying.  Of course she does.  She just doesn't want to have to tell you; surprise her with one of the following ideas:

• A night or weekend trip to an inn or bed and breakfast. It doesn't have to be in an exotic or expensive locale, but a change of scenery and some time together will be appreciated.
• A gift certificate to a spa.  There are only two types of gift certificates you should ever get your partner for Valentine's Day.  A trip to the spa, if she enjoys pampering or a gift certificate for...
• Lingerie at Victoria's Secret or another store.  Again, if she enjoys lingerie, this will be a fun gift, but you never want to buy it yourself.  Sizes are tricky!  Plus, make it a condition of the gift card that you will accompany her shopping for a day.  You will score big points for that, too.
• Make her dinner (and clean the place up first).  You can't go wrong with her favorite foods, drinks, and a special dessert.  Sprinkle in a liberal amount of compliments and a small gift, and you're good.
• Jewelry.  You can go with more expensive pieces for anniversary years, but a great piece of more casual jewelry will give her something to wear everyday that will remind her of you.
• Write her a love letter.  Yes, it may be difficult and seem cheesy, but it will be her favorite gift by far.

What do women not want on the big day?  Things like lotion, bath supplies, or candles are nice thoughts for random Tuesdays, but they will disappoint on Valentine's Day.  The best Valentine's Day gifts for her are not the ones that are most expensive; sometimes the best gift is just spending time together.  Just make it special and make it about her. Women tend to value Valentine's Day more than men, so why not indulge her on this day with something a bit above the ordinary?

Related Articles:

• Valentine Gift Baskets For Him
• Tasty Valentine's Day Breakfast Ideas
• 5 Inexpensive Valentine Gifts Your Wife Will Love

The heart-shaped cheesecake appears everywhere come Valentine’s Day. You’ll pay upwards of $50 in some cases for this little dessert. But you can spend just a few dollars at the grocery store for some ingredients and spend the remaining cash on a gift instead.

Kids can help bake the Valentine’s Day cheesecake every year. It can become a new tradition. It’s an easy enough recipe that doesn’t have complicated steps. But, depending on their ages, you may still want to supervise the activity.

Here’s a recipe from bellaonline.com for a delightful heart-shaped cheesecake.

Heart Shaped Cheesecake Recipe (courtesy of bellaonline.com)

Guest Author - Brandii Lacey

This fun Valentine’s Day treat is simple enough for kids of all ages to help prepare. From crushing the graham crackers into tiny crumbs to pouring the warm topping over the finished product, this cheesecake recipe has something for everyone!

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces of cream cheese, softened

• 2 large eggs

• ½ cup of sugar

• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

• Strawberry pie filling

• 2 cups of graham cracker crumbs

• 4 tablespoons of butter

• 1 heart shaped baking pan (if you don’t have this, simply use a regular baking dish and after the cheesecake cools, you can use a heart shaped cookie cutter).

Directions:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. Spray the heart shaped baking pan with a non stick cooking spray.

3. Crush the graham cracker crumbs in a sealed plastic bag, and pour into
a bowl.

4. Melt the butter in a sauce pan and add it to the crushed graham cracker crumbs. Mix well.

5. Spread the crumb mixture in the heart shaped pan.

6. In a separate bowl, combine cream cheese, eggs, sugar, and vanilla.

7. Pour cheesecake mixture into the pan and bake for thirty minutes.

8. Heat the pie filling in a small sauce pan.

9. After the cheesecake cools completely, top with strawberry pie filling.

10. Place any leftovers in the refrigerator.

Tips for the recipe:

If you don’t have a heart shaped pan, simply use a regular baking dish. After the cheesecake has cooked, let it cool, and then place in the refrigerator for an hour or two. Use a heart shaped cookie cutter to make individual heart shaped cheesecakes. You can also use the end of a spoon to carve your own heart shapes.

This recipe can easily be adapted to a finger friendly treat! Instead of pouring the graham cracker crumb mixture into the heart shaped pan, spread a little bit of the mixture into a mini muffin pan. Divide the cheesecake mixture into each of the muffin sections, and bake for twenty five minutes, or until cooked through. Let cool completely, and then store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

For heart-shaped cookies, you can take the easy way and use store bought sugar cookie dough. Roll out the dough and cut with heart-shaped cookie cutters. Decorate with a simple royal icing frosting or your favorite store bought flavor and sprinkle with red dusting sugar.

Fortunately, these films have been preserved and are available on DVD and accessible. Some of these films are such genius that it would be a crime to lose the last copy of them. Enjoy a night filled with intrigue, romance, double entendres, scoundrels, and beautiful ladies. Go back to a time when men were men and women were women. A time when decorum ruled and elegance was expected.

Romeo and Juliet

When Harry Met Sally

Love Story

Annie Hall

Vertigo

Camille

The King and I

The African Queen

It’s a Wonderful Life

Wuthering Heights

Beauty and the Beast

It Happened One Night

An American in Paris

West Side Story

Roman Holiday

The Way We Were

The Shop Around the Corner

On Golden Pond

Now, Voyager

Pillow Talk

Dirty Dancing

Bridges of Madison County

Notorious

Morocco

The Goodbye Girl

Bonnie and Clyde

A Streetcar Named Desire

The Apartment

Reds

A Place in the Sun

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Jezebel

Woman of the Year

Way Down East

Jerry Maguire

Double Indemnity

While You Were Sleeping

Before Sunrise

Say Anything

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

An Officer and a Gentleman

Ghost

Casablanca

Only You

Pretty Woman

Serendipity

Sabrina

The Notebook

Titanic

Gone with the Wind

Doctor Zhivago

The English Patient

An Affair to Remember

My Fair Lady

The Princess Bride

Love, Actually

500 Days of Summer

Lost in Translation

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Hitch

Pretty Woman

Runaway Bride

As Good as it Gets

Valentine’s Day

You’ve Got Mail

50 First Dates

My Best Friend’s Wedding

Something’s Gotta Give

The Break Up

Failure to Launch

Sweet Home Alabama

Shakespeare in Love

He’s Just Not That Into You

The Ugly Truth

Two Weeks’ Notice

Moonstruck

Boomerang

Bridget Jones Diary

The Wedding Singer

27 Dresses

Groundhog Day

Shallow Hal

Splash

Letters to Juliette

The Holiday

The Wedding Planner

The American President

Life as We Know It

One Fine Day

Kate and Leopold

The Mirror Has Two Faces

Sense and Sensibility

Manhattan

French Kiss

Blind Date

About Last Night

Roxanne

Pretty in Pink

About A Boy

Because I Said So

Working Girl

Bewitched

Down to Earth

The Secret of my Success

Morocco

Coming Home

The Awful Truth

The Sheik

Quiet Man

Harold and Maude

Porgy and Bess

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Wings of the Dove

What Women Want

Rent a film on DVD tonight and make your Valentine’s Day extra special. And who says it has to be a once a year holiday? Show your sweetie that it’s Valentine’s Day every day with you.

First, don’t attempt something so incredibly hard that even a five star chef would be sweating over it. Go with simple and elegant. If you want to make something really nice, go with steak. If your sweetheart is a vegetarian, opt for a nice pasta dish or lobster tails. You don’t have to make several courses. Just one nice main meal and a dessert is more than enough to show you really care.

Choose your menu based on the fresh ingredients you can get. If you can buy fresh lobster tails, go ahead. But just be aware that popular Valentine’s Day foods like lobster, good steaks, and other succulent treats like shrimp are going to be more expensive as demand increases around the holiday.

Another way to go is to mail order the food. You can either order it frozen, as with lobster or steak. Or you can order it already fully cooked and then just warm everything up and serve it. If you have never taken on an entire meal preparation yourself in your life, a great way to impress your date is to have it all brought in. Just transfer the food over to serving dishes once it’s heated and present it nicely. Whether or not you tell where you got it is up to you.

Many mail order companies will deliver right to your door an entire gourmet meal. Choose from rich chowders and soups, fillet Mignon, roast duck and more. You name it and it can be sent out to you in dry ice in time for the big day. Have it delivered to arrive the day before you need it so you won’t be biting your fingernails wondering if it’s going to make it to you on time.

Serve a nice wine with dinner. If you don’t know how to pick a good wine, ask your friendly neighborhood wine merchant. He or she can suggest the best wines for the meal you are serving. And don’t feel like you have to go ultra expensive. You can buy a decent wine now for a good price and still enjoy every drop.

The fact that you are cooking dinner for your loved one is enough of a treat in and of itself. But make it more special by lighting candles, using the best china and silverware you have, using a linen tablecloth and cloth napkins, and serving the food from your best dishes.

Start off your adults only night by playing some romantic music in the background to set the tone of the evening. Have any disruptive pets calmly partitioned off in the other room if they’re likely to snatch your expensive dinner off your plates. Make it as uninterrupted an evening as possible so you can enjoy yourselves to the fullest.

Turn off cell phones and make it a night for conversation. Watch a romantic movie or two and see where the evening takes you. Chances are you will have a Valentine’s Day to remember.

Here's a little mythology lesson for your Valentine's Day!

In Roman mythology, Cupid is the god of  love and beauty.  He is the son of goddess Venus (goddess of love) and god Mercury (messenger god), thus making Cupid the messenger of love!

The story is, Cupid's mother Venus became jealous of a princess named Psyche.  Psyche was so beloved by her subjects that they forgot to worship Venus, so Venus ordered Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with the vilest thing in the world. When Cupid saw Psyche, however, he was so overwhelmed by her beauty that he fell in love with her himself.

Cupid began paying visits to Psyche, but he would never reveal himself. But Psyche, with some urging by her sisters, tried to see her lover. She tricked Cupid who became so irate that he left her. Psyche wandered the earth, searching for Cupid. Finally, the god Zeus united her with Cupid and gave them permission to marry. They lived happily ever after, giving birth to a daughter whose name was Voluptas, or Hedone (meaning pleasure). The history of romance has begun!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wales - A long-held tradition of giving Welsh Love spoons to ones lover still occurs on Valentine's Day. The wooden spoons are intricately  carved with symbols representing a wide range of emotions intended to convey the givers feelings. Some of the symbol meanings are: Heart - Love, Horseshoe - Good Luck, Celtic Knot - Eternal Love, Twisted Stem - Two Lives Become One and
Birds - Love Birds or Let's Go Away Together.

Japan - The traditional gift given on Valentine's Day in Japan is chocolate, but great care is taken to make sure that the correct type of chocolate is given because there are two types - one suitable for friends and one for lovers.  Giri choco or obligatory chocolate is given by women to their male friends, co-workers and superiors. Honmei choco is chocolate given to the man that a girl is truly interested in or serious about.

Brazil - Brazil does not celebrate Valentine's Day on the 14th of February. Brazilians celebrate the Dia dos Namorados (Day of the Enamored) on June 12th.  The day is is celebrated in colorful style with festivals and dancing. It is also on this day that couples exchange gifts or give flowers and cards to one another.

Mexico - The most prevalent Valentine's Day tradition in Mexico is to exchange gifts in a secret way. The men of Mexico have another special way of showing their affection to the one they love. In the evening, they show up at the home of their girlfriend with a mariachi band or trio of singers who serenade the girl with 2 or 3 romantic songs while standing beneath her window.

10 Ways To Say I Love You

In common languages of the world!

Arabic - Ana behibak (to male)
Arabic - Ana behibek (to female)
Chinese Cantonese - Ngo oiy ney a
Chinese Mandarin - Wo ai ni
French - Je t'aime, Je t'adore
German - Ich liebe dich
Italian - Ti amo
Japanese - Aishiteru or Anata ga daisuki desu
Russian - Ya tebya liubliu
Spanish - Te quiero / Te amo

Need a gift for your sweetie?  Check out all of our Valentine's Day gifts!

Steal My Heart Game -Here's a game that really takes some hand-eye coordination!  Simply purchase a couple large bags of Valentine candy conversation hearts and some chopsticks. Place the candy in a large bowl at the center of a table. Have the kids take a spot around the table then give each child a set of chopsticks.  The goal is to 'steal' as many hearts from the big bowl of candy as possible. You can either give them individual small bowls to store their stolen hearts or tell them to make a pile right in front of them. Make sure to tell them they can only use the chopsticks - NO HANDS!  Set a timer for 3 minutes and the child with the most hearts in their bowl or in front of them when time runs out wins a Valentine prize!

Valentine Memory Game - Purchase one or two bags of candy conversation hearts. Prepare for the game by pouring the candies out and going through them to find pairs of hearts that are identical (same color and same saying). When you are ready to play the game, lay all the pairs of hearts face down on the table. Explain tot he kids that the goal is to find pairs of hearts that have the same saying and color (you might want to show them an example). Go around the circle having each child taking a turn by flipping over two hearts. If they get a pair, they get to take another turn until they miss. When they miss, the hearts get flipped back over (face down). The child with the most pairs when all of the hearts are matched wins the game and a Valentine themed gift.

Pin The Arrow on Cupid - Who can help Cupid get ready to shoot his arrow of love? Buy a large piece of poster board then draw a picture of cupid holding a bow on the poster board. (Online clipart sites are a great visual guide.) Hang the poster board on the wall being sure to have the location at hand height for the kids. Give each child an arrow made out of construction paper. Put double sided sticky tape or a adhesive glue dot on the back of the arrows. To play, blindfold each child, give them a spin around and have them try to pin the arrow on Cupid's bow. The child that gets closest to the intended location wins.

Check out more Valentine Party Games...

Lovers Lifesaver Relay Game - Before the party, buy a roll of lifesaver candies (red and white for Valentine's Day). To start,  evenly split the party guests into groups of 3 or more players. Have the players for each group line up in a straight line then give each of the players a toothpick that they hold in their mouth (no HANDS allowed). Give the first person in each group's line a lifesaver candy which they hang on the toothpick in their mouth. Once you yell start, the first player in line passes the lifesaver from their toothpick to the toothpick of the next player in line (without using their hands). They pass it to the next and so on until the last person in line has the lifesaver on their toothpick. The first team to get the lifesaver to the end of their relay line wins the game! NOTE: During the game if the lifesaver falls to the ground or someone uses their hands, the team must start all over at the beginning with the lifesaver on the first player's toothpick.

Valentine Suck & Blow Card Game - A great game for a bunch of single people! This hilarious game requires 8 or more players and is best pif you have an even number of people and equal number of men and women so that people can sit boy-girl-boy-girl. Have the party goers sit in a tight circle very close to one another because they will be passing cards with NO HANDS. Give a card from a standard or heart-shaped deck of playing cards to one of the people in the group. The goal is to pass the card to the next person in line without dropping it. The first person holds the card to their mouth by sucking on it like a vacuum, they pass it to the person on the right by placing the card on their mouth so that neighbor will need to suck on the card to hold it while the first person blows (releasing the suction) to let go of the card. Don't drop the card or you'll be kissing the person sitting next to you! This game is sure to get lots of laugh!

Be sure to check out our Valentine gifts and cookies - they make great party centerpieces or game prizes!

- Mexican Food - Accent with rich orange, yellow, red and green colors.  Terra Cotta pots could hold fresh flowers.  Use Chili Peppers to accent your dinner table.

- Asian Food - Cherry Blossom Accents add a romantic touch to your dinner.

- Italian Food - Grape vines set a mood for your Italian dinner.  Wine and Cheese are also a great choice.  Play authentic Italian music in the background.

If you're not the best cook, you could always order take-out and sill serve it on your table for 2.

For dessert anything heart-shaped will do!  How about a heart-shaped cheese cake? Our two pound cheese cake says "Happy Valentine's Day on top and is garnished with a Red Marzipan Rose. The Chocolate fudge and Raspberry Swirl cheesecake features a chocolate cookie crust, while the NY style has a classic graham cracker crust.

How about a trio of Valentine Chocolate Caramel Apples? Crisp petite Granny Smith apples are hand-dipped in rich, golden caramel then dipped in Belgian Chocolate and finished with festive icing decorations and candy sprinkles for a delectable one-of-a-kind treat!  Just $34 for over a pound of deliciousness!

Another fun and luscious idea is a tin of Belgian Chocolate Covered Oreo Cookies. For $32 you get 16 delicious Oreo® sandwich cookies enrobed in rich Dark, Milk or White Belgian chocolate, then coated with Valentine themed decorations.  They look amazing and taste even better!

So if you're looking for a unique and chocolately gift this Valentine's Day, you're sure to find the perfect choice at Holiday Gifts & Gift Baskets.