Last night was awesome.

Ed had been planning this for some time, and last night he took me here. It’s a complete coincidence that the day I was waxing poetry about the beauty of the mountains is the day I ended up taking a gondola up that same mountain for an utterly fantastic dinner in a super fancy restaurant. Whee!

I was surprised when we headed up towards Grouse Mountain, because I had guessed that we were going to Quattro for dinner. I was a little grumpy about it – not because of the location because I’ve always wanted to go up the Grouse gondola, but because I had received NO WARNING WHATSOEVER that we were about to go UP A MOUNTAIN. I was NOT dressed properly – black boots with heels, a little red dress, and a littler sweater. No jacket, or gloves. We had to stand in line to take the gondola, and we were surrounded by people heading up the mountain for night skiing – everyone else was wearing jackets and hats and gloves and pants and boots, and here I was freezing my ample ass off on the side of a mountain. It was COLD, yo. Luckily the ride was swift and fun, and the lodge at the top of the mountain was warm so I quickly ungrumped and advised Ed that if he were to pull a similar stunt in the future, it might be nice to give a little bit of a warning when sneaking someone into a situation where adequate clothing would be appropriate.

I didn’t have my camera with me, so I wasn’t able to take any pictures. The mountain was just as glorious up close as it was from afar; all the trees were frozen and white and sparkly. We made a date to go up again next month with the sole purpose of picture taking, but last night was all about the romantic dinner. Ed checked his coat (since I didn’t HAVE ONE), and we were escorted to our window table overlooking the city far below.

It was incredible.

Then they served me some Diet Coke.

In my own orange monster mug.

The fuck?

Our server came over to our table with a towel over her arm and a bottle of Diet Coke presented like a fine wine. I started laughing (I hadn’t ordered any Diet Coke; I always get lemon water with my meals that don’t come from a drive through), and THEN I noticed she was carrying one of my own mugs. She set it in front of me, assured me the Diet Coke was of a fine vintage, and poured me a mug full of carbonated goodness.

This was all Ed’s doing. He had masterminded the entire thing to the point of stealing my orange monster mug and taking a bottle of Diet Coke up to the mountain the night before, with instructions to present it to me at our dinner. It was hilarious and so, so cute. Everyone around us in this uber posh restaurant was drinking wine out of fancy crystal glasses, and I had a big orange mug with an eyeball and fangs and a fresh bottle of Diet Coke on the table. HEE! Ed was sad that it did not make me cry (I had told him he’d get bonus points if he’d do something so sappy I’d weep at it all), but he got extra points anyway for doing something so bizarre and utterly “me” that I almost cried from laughing so hard. It was great. :D

Dinner was fantastic, too. We had some fancy elf oysters to start, then I got the sea scallops that came on a crab risotto with green foam all over it and Ed got some sort of fancy beef with yummy glazes and saucy things. My scallops were SO GOOD. They were huge and plentiful and man oh man I love scallops. For dessert we shared a toffee pudding and its suggested pairing of some sort of sherry (well, we shared the pudding at any rate – Ed drank the sherry; I had Diet Coke to drink) and it too was great. Those scallops, though – daaaaang. So tasty.

Guests are asked to turn their cell phones off as to better enjoy the ambiance, but I turned mine on a snuck a picture:

SEKRET CHRISTMAS DINNAR for the win! Yay for sneaky, weird Ed!