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Celebration, Podcast

Episode 32 – Tons of Ideas for Date Nights at Home with your Hubby

Today, we’re going to talk about date nights at home. My hubby and I often enjoy having our date nights at home. For many years, we weren’t really able to go out because our children were young, and we didn’t have babysitters that we wanted to use, so we had date nights at home, and they’ve been so amazing. 

Nowadays, we have older children; adult children, and so we try to go out once a month to a place, but it is more expensive, so we still like to have three date nights of the month at home. Today I’m going to tell you how we do that, how they work, and give you some ideas for what you can do for date nights at home.

We so enjoy doing this, because somehow when you set aside that time in your mind, and you do something special, it helps so much with being close and connected, having good conversation, and catching up. When the kids  are always around, it’s harder to really connect, so we value that time so much. 

Sometimes we get takeout food from a nice place that we like. Often we’ll get a couple of different things from different places to make it more interesting. Sometimes we’ll make food at home. I’ll tell you more about that in a moment, but it’s really not that big a deal because we’re doing it together, and it really feels like part of the evening; we’re relaxed and so we don’t have the stress of cooking beforehand.

So, one of our favorite date nights to have is a Swiss fondue. Swiss food is some of my favorite, and Switzerland being a place that I absolutely love, we like to do Swiss fondue. Sometimes we’ll buy a pre-made fondue and just melt it, and other times we’ll make our own from scratch using Emmentaler cheese, Gruyere cheese, and a bit of white wine. It’s so delicious! We use sourdough bread, and we make chunks, and then we dunk it in there. But that’s only a part of the date night. Every week, we like to do one of two things. There’s this one, and I’ll tell you about the second one later, which is a movie night, but often we rather like to be at the table, and do other things in between eating, like playing games.

So, the first thing we do is put on our date night playlist on an external speaker. Depending on the room we happen to be in, sometimes we’ll do a little bit of dancing in the middle while we’re cooking or setting the table. Then we’ll make the table beautiful. We’ll put underplates, we’ll put electronic candles because I don’t like the fumes from ordinary candles, we’ll lower the lighting, we’ll have a beautiful tablecloth and romantic napkins. We’ll use our gold cutlery, our fancy glasses, and all kinds of things on the table, like flowers, or whatever we can think of. 

Often I do that part while my hubby does a few things like set up the lights, and then we’ll have a first course, which is usually something like vegetables, zucchini with halloumi, or sometimes we get crab or vegetarian sushi. So, we’ll have our first course, and we’ll put a special drink in the fridge as well – something like sparkling water or San Pellegrino drinks, and then we’ll just relax and talk. Somehow it’s so much easier to talk than usual, because we’re relaxed, it’s just the two of us, and we’re focused on that.

Sometimes we also use conversation starter cards for couples, and that helps to get the conversation going. Then we’ll make our cheese fondue, melt it, set it all up on the table, and enjoy that. It’s also a nice slow food to eat while we chat. Then usually we’ll slowly pack away and have dessert in front of a movie or a show we’re watching.

We like to play a couple of games in the middle – something like Scrabble, Mastermind, or a card game. Sometimes we like to practice some dancing, so we’ll look for a tutorial, or use something that I’ve saved on Instagram that a couple of dance moves that we practice. We’re not very good at that, and we’re just starting to learn, but it’s a fun time to try out some ballroom dancing. 

Then sometimes when we just want a more relaxed evening, my hubby will pull out one of the couches in front of the projector, and we’ll choose a good movie. Then we’ll have mainly finger food in different courses. Sometimes sushi and then some sweet and sour chicken, which is not finger food, but it still works well in a bowl that you can hold. Maybe we’ll have a charcuterie board where we have lots of meats, cheeses, grapes or other fruit, crackers, and that kind of thing, and then it’s really nice. You can just help yourself while you watch. 

Here are some more ideas of things you can do for date nights at home. For an indoor picnic, lay out a nice blanket on your living room floor, pack a basket with finger food, snacks, cheese, and some good drinks, and then enjoy the evening. You can sit on the floor on your blanket, or you can sit back to back, just chatting, pretending you’re outside. You can even put on a nice video clip from YouTube of something like the beach and the ocean, or something else soothing that you enjoy. 

If you enjoy cooking, you can choose a type of cuisine that you enjoy, like French, Italian, or Mexican, and then try your hand at making it, or you can do what we do and order that kind of thing. Perhaps you could pick a recipe that you haven’t made before, and see how that goes. It can be filled with laughter if it goes wrong. But either way, you have lots of fun and hopefully enjoy some good food. 

 

Family Food for Moms .comThen there’s an art evening – we’ve tried this. You each paint on canvas. We enjoy using non oil-based paints. They don’t use real oil, and they’re much healthier for you, but they act like regular oil-based paints. Each of us had a canvas, a picture to copy, and some paints. We found it really easy to have a good conversation while we’re painting. Somehow, when you’re doing something like walking, or a craft activity, or painting, it’s easy to chat. Again, we had some finger foods on the side that we enjoyed. That was really fun. 

Sometimes just for fun, we’ve drawn each other with different facial expressions, and that’s been quite cool. You can do it in any way that’s realistic, so it ends up rather hilarious.

For stargazing these days, you get such great apps where you can hold up your phone, and then it tells you stars’ names and where the planets are. It’s quite gorgeous. You can take your picnic outdoors and do some stargazing as it gets darker. You can tell fun stories, or just gaze at the stars. That’s always a wonderful thing to do.

There’s a pizza night. Have your own pizza bases made, and then you can add your own toppings. Get creative, and try all kinds of different things. Sometimes we like to make six different variations on one pizza. 

And then, as I mentioned before, there’s ballroom dancing. Sometimes you may enjoy a different kind of dancing, but that’s definitely our type. Sometimes we use ballroom dancing tutorials, like Kerry On Dancing, which is by a British lady on YouTube. There’s also many others. If you search for “Waltz tutorial”, or something like that, you can find some good stuff. 

Then there’s reading aloud to each other. Reading poetry is always special, or you could read passages of a book that you love; telling the other person about the book, and reading the good parts. Or you could read a marriage book together, taking turns reading a page to each other, and then talking about it.

And then – you don’t only do this when you’re kids – you can build a fort using cushions and blankets or whatever furniture you have, crawl in there with pillows, fairy lights, and some snacks, and snuggle up, chat, and be silly together. Use a torch and make hand puppets on the wall, and just have a fun time together relaxing.

You could do memoryland movies – choose your oldest favourite movies and watch those together. Alternatively, look at some home videos, or videos of you guys many years ago, or even of when you were young. Look at old photos, or even old slides, if you’re that old. 

A photo shoot is great fun. Get dressed up or choose a few outfits, maybe some casual, some fancy, and then have your own photo shoot. You’ll need a tripod so that you can set up the self timer, and then you can do funny poses. You can wear different hats. You can use photo props. Use this to get some good photos of the two of you and have lots of fun in the meantime. 

You could learn a new skill together, like juggling, folding balloon animals, origami, or a basic dance routine TikTok style. You could do a drawing tutorial,  on YouTube again, or you could get those drawing pages that have different steps that you start, and then you add more and more detail. If you’re not so good at drawing, like I mentioned previously, then this kind of drawing is good for you. 

You could have an ice cream bar, with your favorite toppings; sprinkles, whipped cream, chocolate syrup, candy, and different flavors of ice cream to make amazing ice cream sundaes, and to mess a bit on each other in the process.

There’s virtual travel. Choose a destination that you want to visit, and then create a mini virtual trip. You can watch a documentary about it, or a video on YouTube, or you can read an article. You can even eat the food from that place. You can look at the flag. You can do a fun trivia questions quiz for each other about that place. You can go there on Google Earth, and find some of their local music to enjoy. Have a country themed date night. 

You could just sit down and talk about your future plans, and dream about what you want to do, where you want to visit, things you’d like to do in your business, and life goals – this is such a meaningful way to bond. I remember doing this a lot when we lived in California. We used to go for long walks along the beaches, or in Mountain View at Shoreline Park – this beautiful huge park, and we would just talk and talk. Somehow the best way to do that was walking. It may not be as easy to sit down and talk, but if you sit cross legged on the floor facing each other or on the couch one on each end, and you ask each other questions, then maybe your conversation can get going.

A bucket list is a similar thing – you just write down a whole lot of things that you’d really like to do as a couple, whether it’s with your kids, or after your kids have left the home; travel goals, activities, and any other dreams you have. This is a great way to bond, if you write them down together. 

Depending on whether you drink alcohol, you could do a wine tasting, or, as we would do, maybe a soda tasting, where you have some unusual drinks. You pop them all behind a piece of cardboard, you put a straw in each. Your partner sets it up, and you have to taste and guess what each soda might be.

The last one I want to mention, and I love this one, is to make a time capsule. Fill a box with memories, photographs, mementos from your relationship, and anything that you maybe would forget about and look at again in however many years, when you dig it up. Bury it in your backyard, and then set a date and a reminder to dig it up in a year or two. Maybe you can write a letter to each other to include in that. That’s a special one to do. 

Another special date night, or something you could do at one of your date nights, is to read your wedding vows to each other. This is always very meaningful if you’re sitting, looking into each other’s eyes and you’re relaxed and together. It’s also special when it’s just the two of you, as opposed to being in front of a crowd of others, you can slow down and take your time and read through the vows and make it really meaningful. And even talk about some of the things that you’ve found hard or that you want to update or add to.

I also wanted to mention that when we have a date night, the kids know in advance and they know what to do. Usually they’re going to be upstairs by about, 7 30pm. They expect this night to be an earlier one. They have books to read, they take showers, and they have an early dinner. They always have the same dinner that they really enjoy, which is a or steak chicken pie (like a chicken pot pie) and some homemade chips or french fries and some sort of vegetable with that. Then a dessert similar to what we’ll be having at our date night, such as chocolate mousse. So they really enjoy their dinner, and it’s a little bit earlier than usual, then they are able to go upstairs. 

We then have the run of the downstairs area for our date night, whether it be in the living room or the dining room or the kitchen. I don’t have to cook a big meal for them, I can just warm whatever we’re going to have (I didn’t say we buy the pie, we don’t make it) – and then we’re good to go. 

Oh, and I was also going to mention that a bonfire or any kind of grill in your backyard, when it’s just the two of you, can be very fun. You can grill marshmallows or make s’mores, or just enjoy a barbecue that’s just the two of you. 

So, I hope you have some good ideas for at-home date nights, and I hope that you have some special fun trying some of these ideas out. 

Thanks for listening. See you next time.