Some background: Mr. T and I don't get to go out much for dates, and after nearly 13 years of marriage and two little boys, dinner doesn't seem special anymore - just a means to an end. Usually at the end of the day, it's survival mode only. He comes home, we feed the kids, they play with dad for a bit, they take baths, and then it's stories and bed time. We pretty much wait till 9ish to feed ourselves and those meals are anything but fancy. More and more I realize how rotten this setup is and it is something I desperately want/need to change.
The problem is quite simply that I hate to cook. I especially hate to cook those mundane meals that no one remembers. It just seems like the biggest waste of time and I don't have much time as it is. I do not want to spend the precious few moments I have away from the kids fixing some daily meal. I'd rather just eat a bowl of cereal every day. I'm serious! I guess you could call that lazy... I call it practical.
Enter idea. With this "dinner at eight" plan, there is a (once a month at least) date night premise where you put the kids to bed a bit early and fix a special meal to share at home in some fancy way. No pizza on the couch while watching the latest episode of Modern Family on the DVR. It takes a bit of planning and extra work, but I think Mr. T is worth it.
Valentine's day was my pilot "dinner at eight." It was a travel theme because I found these super cute valentine paper airplane printables that I wanted to write favorite travel memories on and make a garland out of. It turned out to be a super easy and thoughtful decoration. Plus, it made for a fun dinner conversation as we reminisced about some favorite trips!
Here are some glimpses into our special dinner night...
Dinner itself was tasty. We had spinach tortellini pasta with a caesar salad. It was a memory meal, as it was our favorite date night dinner at the Spaghetti Factory in Atlanta. We also had lots of after-dinner treats that were specialties from our travels... Sangria from Spain, Cadbury chocolate from England, cheeses from Ireland and France, crepes made like the ones we had in Quebec... We have been blessed by getting to have so many adventures! It was very cool to just take some time to reflect back on some of those special memories we've made together. Can't wait till next month!
2 comments:
LOVE THIS! We are headed to NY this summer and after this trip we will have done Paris, New York and London. i want to find and print pics to celebrate! (However the pics of Paris 13 years ago may have soem crazy hair!)
Wow, this sounds amazing! I'm impressed that you managed to pull all that together. All of your past adventures sound great, too - I hope in a few years I have that many memories with my Tim!
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