How many digital photos do you have of your valentine? Apple makes it easy to turn those JPEGs into wonderful hard-cover or soft-cover books with iPhoto ’11. For Valentine’s Day, I gave my wife a hard-cover, 60-page coffee table book of our wedding photos. If you don’t have a Mac, consider using Shutterfly or Picaboo for your next photo book gift.

And for a twist on chocolates, give your Valentine what my wife gave me: a large tin of Godiva chocolate pretzels.

• Valentine’s Day 2011: Photo Book (2/14/2011)
• Happy Sweetest Day 2010: Ghirardelli chocolate squares (10/16/2010)
• Valentine’s Day 2010: Coffee Gifts (2/14/2010)
• Valentine’s Day 2010: 10 Gifts for Him (1/24/2010)
• Happy Sweetest Day 2009 (10/17/2009)
• Giving Personalized M&Ms (3/7/2009)
• Happy Valentine’s Day 2009 (2/14/2009)
• Choice Chocolates for Valentine’s Day (2/1/2009)
• Love is in the Mail for Valentine’s Day 2009 (2/1/2009)
• Happy Sweetest Day 2008 (10/18/2008)
• Sweetest Day is Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008 (10/13/2008)
• Valentine’s Day 2008: Step by Step (2/14/2008)
• Valentine’s Day 2008: 12 Gifts for Him (2/2/2008)
• Cupid’s Crystal Ball: How Will America Spend Valentine’s Day 2008? (1/30/2008)
• Happy Sweetest Day 2007 (10/20/2007)
• Sweetest Day is Saturday, Oct. 20, 2007 (10/15/2007)
• Giving Flowers (7/14/2007)

Visit MyMMs.com to customize the classic candies. First, pick two colors from 20 options. Then create a unique message on each color (two lines, eight characters per line). MyMMs.com prints one side of the candy; the other side carries the signature lowercase “m” you find on all M&Ms. It’s like text messaging via candy.

And if you’re sending custom M&Ms to your love, play off that urban legend about the green M&Ms as an aphrodisiac.

You also can upload a photo and have a your giftee’s face appear on M&Ms. I recommend choosing a single face for each M&M design because the candies are only one centimeter wide. The resulting image looks a black-and-white sketch, so avoid photos with shadowing on the face.

Allow about two weeks of lead time for your custom M&Ms. For one 7-ounce bag with personalized messages, you’ll pay about $17 plus $10 shipping. The unit price drops as you buy more bags ($14 per bag for two bags; $12 per bag for three bags). For faces on your M&Ms, you’ll need a minimum quantity of three bags for $13 per bag.

For the ultimate packaging, order the custom M&Ms with a cast-iron gumball candy dispenser with a glass top.

Next, I gave my wife the best wine opener on the market, Le Creuset Elegance Chrome Lever Model Screwpull. This chrome masterpiece makes opening wine as simple as clamp, press down and pull up. The Screwpull replaces our corkscrew that broke just before hosting a Christmas party last year. With a 10-year warranty, this sommelier’s friend should keep uncorking for some time.

Finally, chocolate is a must for Valentine’s Day. I ordered online a 36-piece ballotin of Candinas chocolates. Candinas follows the Forrest Gump philosophy: “My momma always said, ‘Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.’” Unlike other chocolatiers, you won’t find a map to each Candinas chocolate in the box. Candinas makes different batches of chocolates each day, a delicious chaos that makes a map impossible. These chocolates are heavenly, and we’ve learned to appreciate the mystery. And Candinas makes the chocolate fresh with no preservatives; it’s good for only 10 days. We’re up to the challenge.

• Candinas Chocolates (CR Best Buy, Excellent rating for traditionalists)

• John & Kira’s Every Flavor (Excellent rating for traditionalists)
• La Maison du Chocolat (Excellent rating for traditionalists)
• Martine’s Assortment du Jour (Excellent rating for traditionalists)
• Fran’s Assorted Truffles Collection (Excellent rating for traditionalists)
  
  
• Nonnie Waller’s Traditional Southern Treasure Chest Truffles (Excellent rating for traditionalists)
• Norman Love Confections (Excellent rating for adventurous tastes)
• Woodhouse Chocolate Assortment (Excellent rating for adventurous tastes)
• Jacques Torres Jacques’ Choice (Excellent rating for adventurous tastes)
• Godiva Gold Ballotin (CR Best Buy, Very Good rating)
• Leonidas Chocolate General Assortment (CR Best Buy, Very Good rating)
• See’s Famous Old Time Assorted (CR Best Buy, Very Good rating)

If you are giving a Valentine’s Day card, consider sending it with a special postmark. Loveland, Colorado’s post office offers a Valentine re-mailing program, a tradition since 1947. First, buy the card in advance so you can mail it out the first week of February. Seal the card in an envelope with your funny Valentine’s address and finish it with a Valentine’s stamp. Now put that envelope into a larger 1st class envelope with the right postage and mail it to:

Postmaster
Attention: Valentines
446 E. 29th St.
Loveland, CO 80537-9998

Loveland’s post office volunteers hand-stamp a love-poem postmark on thousands of Valentines and send them to sweethearts. I treated my wife to this tradition while we were dating, and she still has the envelope. Kudos to author Michael Webb, who introduced me to this idea in his book, The RoMANtics Guide.

She started her work day with a vase of roses, placed on her desk before she arrived. In the afternoon, she received her PajamaGram right on time.

Then, an hour ago, she discovered my capstone Valentine’s Day gift: a bed step. I simply placed the step against the foot of our queen-sized bed and waited for her to find it. You see, we have a wonderful pencil-post bed, hand crafted by Harden Furniture. But the bed and mattress are so high for my petite wife, she practically needs a running start to vault into bed. No more. Harden makes a step that matches our bed’s finish and style perfectly. The top step features hand-painted laurels in a lighter finish. She was both surprised and delighted.