. . . date night and chocolate pie

October 4th marked the 10th anniversary of my first date with Keith. It's hard to believe we met that long along ago, set up by my stepmom who happened to work with Keith. I remember her telling me not to break his heart because he was like a son to her! Funny how things work out -- now he really is her son!

Flowers from Keith on our anniversary :)

We decided to celebrate by getting a sitter and going out for a nice dinner. It couldn't have been a more wonderful night -- we chose to eat at Mykonos, a Greek restaurant in Son, where the owner remembered me from the one time I was there six months earlier! After perusing the 10 page menu (all in Dutch or Greek) and having a hard time deciding on anything, the owner asked if we would like for him to choose our menu and he would bring out all kinds of good stuff -- um, yes please! He started with hummus, pita bread, and calamari as an appetizer, followed by a perfect Greek salad. He then brought a huge plate full of meats, poultry, and fish, all grilled Greek-style to perfection, accompanied by rice and fries (because, hey, it's the Netherlands). Even after paying for our dinner he insisted on bringing after-dinner drinks, a cognac for Keith and a yummy liqueur for me. The owner is so attentive and every part of the meal was thought-out and personal, besides being delicious! And as if the night couldn't get any better, it absolutely did . . . it was one of those nights were we just talked and talked, all about our past, present, and future, and a few hours just flew by. It was one of those nights where I fell in love again. Ten years after the first time.

And since I'm getting all mushy on here, I might as well write about another sweet moment. A few weeks after that we put Liam to bed and started catching up on some of our favorite recorded shows from the week. During that week's episode of The Office, Jim had spent the entire episode trying to get his wife Pam to her favorite pie stand out in the country. He finally succeeded (after many mishaps and roadblocks), just to make her happy. Cue happy sigh. Well when the episode ended, we had the following conversation:

Me: "I wish you loved me like that." (being facetious of course)

Keith: "Loved you like what?"

Me: "Like Jim loves Pam."

Keith: "You want me to get you a pie? I'll go out right now and get you whatever kind of pie you want!"

Me: "It's after 10:00 pm! Nothing is open right now!" (not that I even wanted a pie)

Keith: "Well I'll make you a pie -- what kind of pie do you want?" (well . . . if I had to choose . . .)

Me: "Chocolate."

Keith: "Ok. I'll make you a chocolate pie."

Me: "You can't be serious? It's 10:15 at night!"

Keith: "What my baby wants, my baby gets." (and off he goes to the kitchen)

[Sidenote: In case you've forgotten, my absolute favorite movie is The Breakup, which that line is from, in this scene:

I digress]

SO . . . Keith spent the next 45 minutes in the kitchen making me from scratch a homemade chocolate pie. Including a graham cracker crust. If that's not love I don't know what is.

We let it set that night and tried it the next night. I'll be honest. It was more like pudding . . . and he may or may not have made it with hot chocolate mix . . . but it absolutely, without a doubt, is the thought that counts. This is a story I will be telling our grandchildren. That their grandfather loved me so much that he made me a chocolate pie, with ingredients on hand, late one night -- just to show his love.

And then Liam found it in the fridge and he loved it too . . .

One loved wife,
~Jessi