Date Night

Josh and I made a big point this Christmas of not over-spending on each other.  We didn't set an official budget, but both went into it with the understanding that neither of us wanted nor needed anything too big.  In doing so, one of the upsides (besides the obvious saving of money) was that it forced me to think a little and try to come up with some gifts that didn't necessarily cost a lot of money, but were full of meaning/thought/effort.
With that in mind, I came up with the idea of giving Josh a year's worth of date nights.  Basically, I lined up babysitters (it really pays to have family members living close by!) for a specific night for the first few months (and had them casually commit to dates beyond that) and then wrote out a note card for each month detailing when our date would be and where we would be going.
If you have children and/or know my husband, you know that these plans were hardly set in stone.  The idea was more to get out of the house, just the two of us...something we have really struggled with since Colton was born.

just call them Josh and Michelle...

                                             
When I first came up with my master plan, January 21st seemed like eons away.  But lo and behold, here it was...this past weekend...and that meant it was time for Date Night #1!  The plan was to go to Wild Wing Cafe, Josh and my Cheers of sorts.  We used to spend the vast majority of our Friday nights (and sometimes Saturdays too) perched right at the bar of this place, hanging out til whatever hour we pleased.  While we are still frequent visitors, we now sit at a table with our little family and are there for about an hour tops.  We had really looked forward to rejoining the grown up crowd, having as many drinks as we pleased, and staying out til some ungodly hour.
Well, like I said plans are rarely set in stone around here, and other plans were in store for us.  First, Colton woke up from his nap and promptly threw up.  His grandmother had fed him about 50 bajillion blueberries, and we were pretty sure that those were the culprit.  We debated cancelling the date night, but after observing him fro a few hours, instead decided to just stick pretty close to home in case an issue arose.
Luckily, we live close to Virginia Beach's Town Center where a Yard House had opened a few months ago.  We have been a few times for dinner, but I had told Josh on one of our first visits that I really wanted to go back when I could drink (they have something like 140 beers on tap...I'm not really a beer drinker, but I figured I could find something I liked with that many to choose from!).  So, off we went...
And we had a great time.  We sat at the bar, had a couple of drinks, got some dinner, watched the families attempting to entertain their children while dining (and smiled in empathy), and even observed a 21-year old birthday party or 2 (I mean, seriously, when did I get so old...they looked like babies!!!).
But at about 8:45 or so, we were done.  We were both ready to get home, get in our pj's, and just relax.  We were ready to see the boys (Colton was supposed to be sleeping but woke up and wandered out to greet us, get some loving, and head back to bed).  And we were ready to resume our normal nightly routine.
In the end, our date night was certainly not what I had originally intended it to be.  But we did accomplish the original intent...we got back to just being "us" for a few hours, the us that made this wonderful little family of ours possible.  And having that little family to come home to just made the night that much sweeter...