My husband and I are celebrating 18 years of wedded bliss on February 15. Before we were married, I told him our anniversary, Valentine’s Day and my birthday (all of which fall within a week of each other) are three separate and distinct occasions and should be celebrated as such. Yeah, right. I now have sympathies for all those with December/Christmas birthdays.
We wanted to go big for a recent milestone anniversary and finally do our dream vacation to Nepal. Yeah, right. Then, that was changed to a childhood best friend’s wedding in Mexico. Yeah, right (still in mourning over that). Do you know what we ultimately decided? To pay off medical bills and finally build a deck. When did I turn so dastardly practical?
So, even though we’re not going on a big, whimsical vacation this year due to COVID, I still want to make this Valentine’s Day and anniversary memorable for our family so here are some ideas.
Flowers and plants are used year-round to send messages of love, happiness and joy. On February 7, 13 and 14, explore the different shapes, textures and colors of dried flowers, leaves and seeds and use them to decorate a Valentine’s Day display to share with loved ones at the Denver Botanic Gardens.
Last year, I decided we would take the “Heart Attack” to a new level. Instead of just cutting out hearts and decorating the house with them, we sat down and wrote what we appreciated about each other. I knew it would be a great practice in recognizing each other’s strengths but I will never forget the looks on my kids’ faces as they shared what they love about each other…one of those priceless parenting moments. We then taped the hearts all over the house for decoration and I have a few still hanging in my office.
Last year for our anniversary, I purchased 17 mylar balloons (spring for these instead of latex because they’ll stay afloat longer). I bought nine cute notecards and wrote my favorite memory from every year we’ve been married. I attached them to the balloons and surprised my husband with them.
We traditionally do fondue for our Valentine’s Day dinner so I like to mix things up for breakfast. In the past, I have made heart-shaped pancakes, crepes with strawberries and whipped cream and last year, I shaped cinnamon rolls into hearts and baked them. This year, my kids are into red velvet so I can’t with to try Something Swanky’s Red Velvet Scones with cream cheese frosting. They’re super easy to make and will be a hit.
We count down to Christmas so why not for Valentine’s Day? Crafting blog Makes and Takes made counting down to Feb. 14 even more memorable with their 14 Acts of Love (or, do a 7 days of love since we’re only a week out). Have a lovely heart on one side and an act of service on the other. They are placed right where everyone can see and one member of the family picks out a heart and everyone does the service for each other. As a bonus? They have provided the printables for you so all you need to do is print them out and assemble them. Tip: Personalize the acts of service for your family.
There are so many fun things about having a girl and doing their hair is one of them. Last year, my daughter got invited to a Valentine’s Day party so we did her hair up in hearts. They turned out darling and were a huge hit. Divide the hair up into three side ponytails, twist each of them up, intertwine, use a lot of bobby pins to help them stay in place and tie them off at the bottom. 
Last year, we made cinnamon bun caramel popcorn with almond bark drizzle, whipped up some valentines, packaged them up and gave them to our neighbors and teachers. This recipe from Best Bites is easy and everyone begged us for the recipe. This time around, we’re adding cinnamon hearts to make them even more festive.
I’m not sure who tied Valentine’s Day to chocolate but for them, I’m eternally grateful. If your kids are chocolate lovers, I thought this party seemed like a darling idea. You’ll need chocolate for melting, chocolate molds, lollipop sticks, pretzel rods, marshmallows, various sprinkles and a lot of patience for chocolate-covered messes.
If cheese is your love language, we have a recipe for you. We love fondue for Valentine’s Day and growing up, my family ate strictly meat cooked in broth or oil. A few years ago, my sister-in-law found the most delicious cheese fondue recipe and we’ve never looked back and now we have two delicious fondues every Valentine’s Day.
WHEN: Feb. 11–14 2021
WHERE: Cook Street School of Culinary Arts & Online
Join the chefs at Cook Street in-person or online for a Valentine’s celebration that’s guaranteed to stir up more than just delicious dishes. This deluxe class sumptuous dishes guaranteed to spoil your palate and an optional wine tasting
WHEN: Feb. 12–14, 2021
WHERE: Downtown Aquarium
Looking for a unique dining experience this Valentine’s Day? Take your sweetheart to the Downtown Aquarium for a decadent four-course meal, complete with two glasses of champagne and two Aquarium Adventure Passes.
WHEN: Feb. 12–14, 2021
WHERE: La Sandia Cantina – Northfield
Celebrate Valentine’s Day with La Sandia! This year, the restaurant will be featuring three-course dine-in and take-out specials.
WHEN: Feb. 12–14, 2021
WHERE: Tamayo
Celebrate Valentine’s Day with Tamayo! This year, the restaurant will be featuring three-course dine-in and take-out specials. ¡Qué romántico!
WHEN: Feb. 13–14, 2021
WHERE: Humboldt Kitchen + Bar
Celebrate an evening of romance with a chef-prepared three-course Valentine’s menu. The full food and drink menu will also be available.
WHEN: Feb. 13, 2021
WHERE: Virtual/Online
Join chefate for a virtual Valentine’s Day cake-stuffing party! We’ll be creating pinata cakes that hide a delightful surprise in the middle. The best part is that no matter how fancy or messy your finished cake looks, it’s guaranteed to be delicious and reveal your love.
WHEN: Feb. 13 & 14, 2021
WHERE: Ironton Distillery & Crafthouse
Enjoy a special evening that’s Cupid approved. Ironton’s special paired and plated, three-course dinner returns! Your ticket includes live music, four full-sized cocktails, and three paired plates. Add an optional bouquet of fresh roses from local florist Daisy’s Front Porch and they’ll be on the table when you arrive.
WHEN: Feb. 14, 2021
WHERE: Chapungu Sculpture Park
Loveland — it’s right there in the name! The group wedding will include a romantic ceremony, keepsake photos, a lock couples can use to “Lock their love” on the famous LOVE sculpture or HEART sculpture in Loveland, gift bags, signature wedding cupcakes and a chance to win a huge gift basket.
WHEN: Feb. 14, 2021
WHERE: Virtual/Online
Denver Urban Gardens is excited to host local food hero Chef Biju Thomas for an intimate night in with a virtual Valentine’s cooking class! DUG will provide everything, including custom cocktails, live music from lovebirds Niki + Luke of The Dollhouse Thieves and all the ingredients you’ll need to whip up your romantic meal of fattoush (z’atar) salad; winter vegetable roast with chicken, falafel or crispy tofu; and wildflower honey and butter-poached pistachios in pastry with cinnamon cream.
WHEN: Feb. 14, 2021
WHERE: Colorado Sake Co.
Indulge in beautifully crafted sushi sake pairings prepared in collaboration with Denver Sushi House. Some of the featured courses will include a sushi duet of steak and lobster and a dim sum tasting.
WHEN: Thru Feb. 28, 2021
WHERE: Dillon Town Park
This award-winning frozen attraction is built using hundreds of thousands of icicles hand-placed by professional ice artists. The castles include breathtaking LED-lit sculptures, ice-carved tunnels, frozen thrones, slides, fountains and more.
Unwind together! The Ritz-Carlton‘s Couples Spa Escape offers two hours of relaxation with your partner, including side-by-side massages and full, private access to all spa facilities.
PAINT AND SIP
You’ll laugh at your artistic abilities (or lack thereof), loosen your conversation with wine and come away with two memorable pieces of art after a paint-and-sip evening at Sipping n’ Painting Hampden (6300 E. Hampden Ave.).
MUSIC & PERFORMING ARTS
WHEN: Feb. 12, 2021
WHERE: Virtual/Online
Kick off Valentine’s weekend with this steamy streaming performance. This is definitely NOT your parents’ romance novel!
WHEN: Feb. 12, 2021
WHERE: Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum
Whether you’re looking for a beautifully unique classical music performance or a romantic candlelit experience, this performance is for you. You don’t need to know all things Vivaldi to enjoy the evening — simply sit back and savor the stunning, candlelit atmosphere as Velveteen Ensemble Denver takes you into the clouds with Vivaldi’s most treasured masterpieces.
WHEN: Feb. 12–13, 2021
WHERE: Virtual/Online
Town Hall Arts Center proudly presents a staged concert version of “Almost, Maine” by John Cariani, streaming from the safety and comfort of your home. The play is a series of loosely connected tales about love — relationships begin, end or change beyond recognition. Strangers become friends, friends become lovers, and lovers turn into strangers. On one cold and magical winter night, the citizens of Almost experience the life-altering power of the human heart.
WHEN: Feb. 12–14, 2021
WHERE: The Lake House at Pelican Bay, Greenwood Village
This Valentine’s Day weekend, enjoy three nights of music and comedy at the Lake House at Pelican Bay, located at Cherry Creek State Park. The lineup includes Louis Johnson & A Girl Named Sethe on Friday, Kevin Fitzgerald & Jacob Larson Band on Saturday, and Phil Palisoul & Dotsero on Sunday.
WHEN: Feb. 8–17, 2021
WHERE: Virtual/Online
The 25th annual JCC Mizel Arts and Culture Center’s Denver Jewish Film Festival will showcase 21 feature films and 10 shorts, including Israeli and Jewish cinema from 14 countries.
WHEN: Feb. 12–21, 2021
WHERE: Virtual/Online
The Colorado Environmental Film Festival is an exciting, inspiring and energizing event that includes world-class environmental films by local and foreign filmmakers with representatives from local and national organizations. True to the spirit of Colorado, this event is supported and attended by people who value the natural world and share a passion for the power and beauty of film.
WHEN: Feb. 12–21, 2021
WHERE: Virtual/Online
This selection of short films will appeal to a wide audience from film connoisseurs to avid cyclists and everyone in between. Streaming begins at 6 p.m. on February 12 and can be viewed anytime, multiple times until the end of the day February 21. A portion of ticket sales benefit Community Cycles, a non-profit bike shop and advocacy organization.
WHEN: Feb. 13, 2021
WHERE: Boulder Theater
Celebrate music from the last hundred years to today that brings the greatest love stories to life. All tickets are sold in tables of four or eight and include two drinks (beer, wine or well). Additional beverages, food and upgrades will be available for purchase at your table. 
WHEN: Feb. 14, 2021
WHERE: Virtual/Online
This virtual Valentine’s Day concert spotlights the Young Artists Orchestra divided into several chamber ensembles and performing Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” Samuel Coldrige-Taylor’s “Novelletten,” Igor Stravinsky’s “Symphony for Wind Instruments” and Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade for Strings,” to name just a few.
WHEN: Feb. 14, 2021
WHERE: Virtual/Online
Join Augustana Arts for their second Culinary Concert featuring jazz musicians Neil Bridge and Karen Lee Bridge and guest chef Andrew Hudson. “What the World Needs Now Is Love, Sweet Love!” is the perfect way to enjoy Valentine’s Day with your family, spouse, friend or partner.
WHEN: Mar. 4–21, 2021
WHERE: EXDO Event Center
Experience a four-ring circus performance of otherworldly delight. “Celestial Chaos” combines the talents and expertise of theatrical circus artists with the artistry and creativity of the immersive and visual arts to bring audiences into the clouds and beyond.
WHEN: Thru Fall 2023
WHERE: Online
After the death of Michael Brown, The Ferguson Unrest shook the nation to its core and put a spotlight on police brutality and discrimination. Using extensive interviews she conducted herself, Pulitzer Prize finalist and Obie Award winner Dael Orlandersmith created eight fictional characters to represent the broad spectrum of perspectives that continue to define and divide our country at large.
MUSEUM & ART EXHIBITIONS
WHEN: Thru Feb. 13, 2021
WHERE: Union Hall
The work included in Exclamation Point. explores play, joy, rigor and what it means to make a “painting” in 2021. Though all the artists engage with questions of painting, none work primarily with paint, and some don’t use paint at all. From credit cards to faux fur, each artist begs the question, “What isn’t an art material?”
WHEN: Thru Feb. 14, 2021
WHERE: MCA Denver
This exhibition posits art making as a critical civic act and exemplifies how artists act as citizens. Many of the works address specific political crises, such as the opioid epidemic and Flint, Michigan’s battle for clean water. Others highlight specific legal issues that shape American society.
WHEN: Thru Feb. 15, 2021
WHERE: Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe
Boulder-based Latinx artists Alejandra Abad and Roman Anaya have a vision: to reclaim flags as a symbol for the hopes and dreams of all people. Enjoy this free, outdoor public art installation on Santa Fe Drive!
WHEN: Feb. 5–27, 2021, Fridays & Saturdays
WHERE: Space ANNEX
This juried exhibition features the work of three artma artists: John McEnroe, Katharine McGuinness and Mami Yamamoto. Proceeds support The Morgan Adams Foundation, a local organization dedicated to raising money and awareness of behalf of children battling cancer.
WHEN: Thru Feb. 27, 2021
WHERE: Littleton Museum
This group exhibition features Patricia J. Finley, Annamarie Mead, Lydia Riegle, Janet Rundquist and Cyncie Winter celebrating the Colorado lifestyle and environment: the expansive blue skies, the magical quality of light at high altitude, the abundant sunshine, the clarity and dryness of the air, and mountain adventures.
WHEN: Thru Feb. 27, 2021
WHERE: William Havu Gallery
Dennis Lee Mitchell captures elusive and ephemeral smoke on paper in his unconventional drawings by applying acetylene torches directly to the surface of archival paper, creating rich brown-blacks and faint gradations left by moving smoke. The resulting imagery evokes natural forms such as landscapes and plants, yet remains captivatingly abstract.
WHEN: Thru Feb. 28, 2021
WHERE: Vicki Myhren Gallery
Coming Home showcases works recently acquired by the University Art Collections at the University of Denver (DU). Celebrating the creative legacies of DU-affiliated artists across multiple mediums, this exhibition highlights former faculty and distinguished alumni.
WHEN: Thru Feb. 28, 2021
WHERE: Denver Theatre District
These billboards on Champa Street feature a triptych of images depicting three interpretations of a town hall meeting portrayed in Norman Rockwell’s iconic 1943 Freedom of Speech painting. In this series of photographs, the artists situate modern-day citizens within Rockwell’s composition to reflect the diversity of American identities today.
WHEN: Feb. 12–28, 2021
WHERE: Core New Art Space
Love embraces a broad range of strong emotional states, from the most sublime to the simplest pleasure. We love at first sight, fall in love, become addicted to love. Romance looms large in our natures. This open call exhibit has a variety of mediums and was juried by Dana Cain.
WHEN: Thru Feb. 28, 2021
WHERE: History Colorado Center
In works combining watercolor with historical photography, news clippings and text, Denver-based artist Adri Norris highlights women who’ve made history.
WHEN: Thru Mar. 7, 2021
WHERE: Denver Art Museum
The Light Show features more than 200 objects drawn from the museum’s nine curatorial departments that explore both physical and symbolic representations of light in art.
WHEN: Thru Mar. 7, 2021
WHERE: Denver Art Museum
This immersive installation features two films created by Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta. The two films portray the primordial element of fire. Active as an artist throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Mendieta used her body as a way to explore ideas of identity and displacement and its connection to the earth.
WHEN: Thru Mar. 14, 2021
WHERE: Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art
To celebrate moving into a new year, Kirkland Museum will feature newly-acquired and never-before-seen works from the Colorado & Regional Art collection.
WHEN: Thru Mar. 14, 2021
WHERE: Denver Botanic Gardens
Aspen-based artist Jody Guralnick explores the intersection of science and art, bringing to light the microscopic and often unnoticed structures of lichens, mushrooms, molds and more. For her, these tiny organisms are comparable to the first words of the earth — the building blocks of nature’s language.
WHEN: Thru Mar. 20, 2021
WHERE: Metropolitan State University of Denver – Center for Visual Art
CVA is proud to present Zanele Muholi – Somnyama Ngonyama: Hail the Dark Lioness, organized by Autograph, London and curated by Renée Mussai. In more than 80 self-portraits, celebrated visual activist Zanele Muholi (South Africa, b. 1972) uses their body as a canvas to confront the deeply personal politics of race and representation in the visual archive.
WHEN: Thru Mar. 21, 2021
WHERE: Clyfford Still Museum
This exhibition explores Clyfford Still’s later paintings and drawings, made after his move to rural Maryland in 1961. This marks a particularly fertile period for Still, during which he made more than 375 works on canvas and more than 1,100 works on paper (nearly all in pastel) before his death in 1980 at the age of 75.
WHEN: Thru Apr. 11, 2021
WHERE: Denver Art Museum
This collection is composed of more than 70 abstract and conceptual artworks by the internationally recognized artist, a prominent figure of the 1970s Black American avant-garde and Black Arts Movement.
WHEN: Feb. 12–Apr. 25, 2021
WHERE: Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Step into the world of SUE: The T. rex Experience to uncover the mysteries about the life of this fearsome fossil and her nemesis, Triceratops. Experience a unique multimedia show transporting you to the Cretaceous forest. Learn how the fossil was unearthed, and how scientists continue to make discoveries about SUE, the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex specimen ever discovered.
WHEN: Thru May 9, 2021
WHERE: History Colorado Center
Apron Chronicles features photography, personal narratives and one-of-a-kind aprons. While the storytellers’ recollections were each prompted by an apron, they’re not about fabric. Sharing a depth of emotion and social complexity both intimately personal and universally relatable, the exhibit reminds us that we’re all in this together and even lets visitors add their own stories to the experience.
WHEN: Thru May 16, 2021
WHERE: Denver Botanic Gardens
Photographer Fares Micue creates dreamlike self-portraits that integrate natural and surprising objects in vibrant hues. Set against a dark, mysterious ground, her images document the hope and positivity of the human spirit. Micue’s first solo exhibition, Dreams in Bloom celebrates the individual beauty of the human form and the universal creative optimism within.
WHEN: Thru May 31, 2021
WHERE: Denver Art Museum
London-born, New York-based contemporary artist Shantell Martin has collaborated with iconic brands and artists from Puma and Nike to Max Mara and Kendrick Lamar. This interactive multimedia installation features Martin’s signature black and white drawings that explore intersectionality, identity and play.
WHEN: Thru July 17, 2021
WHERE: Longmont Museum
Impressionism is one of the most well-known movements in the history of art. This unique exhibit features original paintings, charcoal illustrations and prints by iconic impressionists like Claude Monet, Edgar Dega, and Camille Pissarro. All three painters produced copious amounts of stunning lithographs in collaboration with printmaker George William Thornley. This exhibition is among the first to examine these remarkable relationships and to showcase the works that emerged from this influential moment in time.
WHEN: Thru July 31, 2021
WHERE: History Colorado Center
What does America mean to a person whose ancestors were insulted in its founding document? Gregg Deal of the Pyramid Lake Paiute leads an Indigenous exploration of what democracy means in Indian Country through his unique, dynamic works.
WHEN: Thru Dec. 31, 2021
WHERE: History Colorado Center
Take a nostalgic ride down Colfax, with stops at the quirky and memorable places that gave the street its worldwide reputation.
Night Lights Denver features rotating content designed by local artists and the community and projected on the Arapahoe Street side of the Daniels & Fisher Tower every Thursday through Saturday evening.
SPORTING EVENTS
WHEN: Feb. 12, 2021
WHERE: Watch on Altitude Sports or listen to KKSE 92.5FM
Cheer on the Denver Nuggets as they take on the Oklahoma City Thunder at Denver’s Ball Arena.
WHEN: Feb. 14, 2021
WHERE: Watch on Altitude Sports or listen to KKSE 92.5FM
Cheer on the Denver Nuggets as they take on the Los Angeles Lakers at Denver’s Ball Arena.
For more events and activities, see the Denver 365 event calendar.