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Throughout my working life, I’ve always had a “work wife” or “husband” who I spent all of my time with at the office. When I worked in the creative department of an ad agency, everyone worked in pairs. Art directors were paired with copywriters and the teams did everything together. We sat next to each other, attended all meetings together, got lunch together and traveled together.

I think often we take these relationships for granted because they are part of office life, but these people end up becoming really meaningful to us. My various “work spouses” throughout the years knew just as much about me (if not more) as my closest friends.

When I started working on my blog full time, it was a solo operation, and one of the things I missed was being around people at work. The best thing that happened to me was meeting Seri, who decided to share an office with me.

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Since then, both our businesses have expanded and we left for separate offices at the end of last year.

When KISSES DELUXE Chocolates asked me to #SayMore to a few people for Valentine’s Day, I decided to honor a few of the women I work with, by throwing a “work wife” inspired brunch smack dab in the middle of the work day.

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Seri's Selects Vday-23These women don’t all work for me, but they have all played some part in helping me build Mommy Shorts, including of course, Seri (aka Little Miss Party) who put together the entire affair, as she does with every event I’ve been tasked with over the past few years.

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On the guest list was Pam (my right hand person since December), Abby (Seri’s assistant who helps me out pretty regularly), Cara (who helps me manage brand partnerships), Andrea (a new contributor to the site) and Danielle, the amazing “Best Case Scenario” photographer who I hope to work with again.

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Seri's Selects Vday-63cropSeri's Selects Vday-87Seri's Selects Vday-118I also invited our longtime nanny Ruth, who has helped me out at work more than anyone else, because I would not be able to leave home to do my job if there wasn’t someone I trusted back at home with my kids.

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I wish I could have invited Annie, last summer’s intern who has continued working for me remotely, but she’s away at college.

I see and talk to these ladies almost daily, but life in the blogging world is a lot more fast paced than you might imagine, and it is not often I grab lunch, let alone take the time to sit down with everyone and thank them for supporting and believing in me.

Seri's Selects Vday-116cropOver heart-shaped frittatas and pink salmon toasts prepared by Chef Sue, I tried to let all these amazing women know how much they mean to me.

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Seri's Selects Vday-65We drank mid-day cocktails and toasted the fact that our current jobs allow us to have brunch on a Wednesday at 11am, instead of sitting in cubicles at huge companies like most of us were doing just a few years ago.

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I wrote each person a little love note and though I won’t tell you exactly what they said, I will tell you that my handwriting has become totally embarrassing. The handwritten note is truly a lost art.

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Seri's Selects Vday-129I hope the KISSES DELUXE chocolates everyone got to take as a gift on the way out more than made up for it.

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Seri's Selects Vday-22And if not that, then the champagne.

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GIVEAWAY:

I’ve given out over twenty boxes of KISSES DELUXE Chocolates to readers over the past few months and today I am giving away ten more, along with a $250 gift card.

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KISSES DELUXE Chocolates are twice the size of a regular Kiss and filled with rich creamy chocolate with a roasted hazelnut at its center. They come in special heart-shaped boxes for Valentine’s Day and are the perfect way to say a little bit more to someone who is special to you.

To enter, you must be a Mommy Shorts subscriber. Then tell me about your work wife or work husband to win.

I’ll be giving away the $250 Amex gift card and six boxes in the comments below and four additional boxes on Instagram, for a total of 10 winners.

I will announce all the winners on Valentine’s Day.

Good luck!

Winner Update:

Congrats to Jessica C, Ess, Courtney, Avery, Mellissa, Lisa Dickson and @yvecheng, @ereef, @jess8589, @baballance! Please contact pam@mommyshorts.com to claim your prize.

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This post is sponsored by Hershey’s KISSES DELUXE chocolates, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Photographer: Dave Robbins