Host: Should we go out to dinner or stay in for Valentine's Day?

Gloria McDonald: You should really understand your partner in what you think your partner would appreciate the most. There are pros and cons to going out to dinner and staying home. If you are going out to dinner, sometimes the restaurants can be very crowded, lots of times they have a fix price menu. So the food is not necessarily is good and sometimes it is more expensive and you are set into certain times, you can only make a reservation at 7:30 or 9:30 or something like that; but if your partner really loves to go out to dinner, then you know what, maybe that is something you should do. On the other hand, maybe your partner loves to cook and maybe he or she would love to have a quiet dinner at home. There is no right and wrong answer; it is really what is best for you. I know what my husband and I often do is we spend Valentine's night at home and I cook a dinner and then we go out on the weekend after that, where the restaurants are not as crowded and it makes it actually much more romantic because we are having our own little private Valentine's dinner and nobody knows.

So you can also mix it up, some years you go out for dinner and some years you stay home or have food brought in or do something that is not necessarily thought of as Valentine's romantic. Go to an ethnic restaurant or something; go to Chinese restaurant or a Thai restaurant or a Vietnamese restaurant or something where the crowds are not likely to be, but food that you both love or try a new restaurant, again, maybe a different type of food. Do something a little bit more adventurous. Mix it up a bit.