Date Night

Date nights come in many different ways. Years ago when the kids were little, we tried to go out on a regular date night whenever we could get away with it. It felt good to have some adult time alone, but also when it was just the two of us, we remembered that we still liked each other. We would often put the kids down to bed before the babysitter arrived, and then go out, sometimes for something small like nachos and a glass of wine. After the kids were grown up and out of the house, a date night might mean a walk to the lake and a stop for ice cream, or a trip to Home Depot and Culvers for supper. The thing is to call it date night, and that makes it special.

Katie asked if we could babysit little boy last night while they went out to dinner. He was already in bed when we arrived, and the house felt all cozy with a fire going in the fireplace. She had Hawaiian pizza from Papa Murphies, salad in the fridge, a box of red wine, and homemade chocolate chip cookies waiting for us.

We baked the pizza, and as we took it out of the oven, some smoke escaped, and the smoke dectector went off really loud! And it had a voice that kept repeating "fire, fire, fire", oh, my gosh! Would it wake little boy? Then right after we got the alarm to stop, music started playing in the living room, which we discovered was a clock! I said, I feel like I'm in a movie ... Composed once more, we ate our supper on Grandma Joyce's dining room table, and announced, this is a date night.

It sure felt like one. We watched Downton Abbey in front of the fire while we munched on cookies, and drank our red wine. Little boy slumbered on. It felt quite nice.