A Year of Dates

In October of 2012 I saw an idea on a friend's blog for a "Year of Dates".  It was the gift she had given her husband in 2011 for Christmas.  As I read about it, I fell in love with the idea.  I found out that she had gotten the idea from someone else....who had gotten the idea from another lady....who had gotten the idea from another person...you get the idea.  If you google "A Year of Dates" you will likely find lots of ideas on blogs across the web.

The idea is that you create 12 months worth of dates for your spouse (or boyfriend/girlfriend).  I loveeeeee giving creative gifts like this, having to spend the time to create a whole 'experience' for Larry.

In 2002, I did the MOST FUN Valentine's gift ever.  I went to the dollar store & bought a whole gift bag full of little things for the gift.  I wrapped each one up & gave them to a lady who worked in Larry's building on another floor.  She passed the little goodies out to people all through the building with instructions to deliver them to him throughout the day at random times.  There were probably 20-30 gifts, so all day long, in the elevator, at the bathroom door, in his office, passing in the hallway...people were walking up & handing him gifts from me.  By the end of the day, he had a big bag full of things to bring home.  Most of them were little nick-nacks that I knew he'd toss in the trash, but the fun of having him receive things all day long, knowing that I had put the energy into creating this fun day for him, was SO EXCITING!  I loved doing it for him and he had a ball receiving it!  Some of the gifts were:
*a sheet of frog stickers with a label where I wrote "I'd croak without you".
*a pack of minty gum with a label that said "Chew a piece on your way home...I want a BIG KISS when I see you!"
*a piece of candy with a label that said "Something sweet for my sweetie"
....and on & on.  Some of the gifts were silly, some serious, some a little more R-rated (for his eyes only!)

So anyway, you can see I really have fun doing creative, romantic gifts like this!  Back to the Year of Dates!

In October & November, I created the gift.  I got 12 large manilla envelopes & decorated the front of each one & sealed inside it the details of that month's date.  I had a blast getting creative and coming up with 12 dates.  Some will cost a few dollars, some are totally free, and some fall somewhere in between.  Just some examples:

*In January, our date is titled "Bookstore & Burgers".  And it's just that--- a trip to Barnes & Noble to roam around and read (we're nerds...we like this kind of thing) and then a trip to a fast food place to sit & chat while we have a burger.
*One month we will have a spa date at home.  We will create homemade facials from common kitchen ingredients (there are tons of recipes on the internet) and sit in our bathroom to giggle while we put them on each other's faces.  There will definitely be pictures!  ha ha!
*One month we'll have a 'health date' where we go for a Saturday morning walk at a local park before we have a healthy Subway lunch.

Each month, I created a different theme.  Some months are things that will appeal to Larry specifically.  Some months it'll be more of something I want to do.  Some months will be things we both love.  I had to be careful to make sure that I didn't just pick girlie things that he'll have to 'endure' for a year.

I am so excited about this!!  It will force us to be intentional about planning to spend time together.  We talk about having a date night all the time, but like so many people, we get busy & just don't set aside the time to make it happen.  So this year, it will happen at least once a month!

We've already opened the 1st envelope & put our January date on the calendar.

I'm going to document each of our dates here on the blog so if someone googles "Year of Dates" later on, they can get some ideas.  (Well...I will document as much as I can!  Some of the date envelopes include things that I will not be sharing!  Big grin!!  I will make sure that everything I post here is family-friendly in case your child reads over your shoulder like mine often do!)

Date night #1....coming soon!