In our household, we take anniversaries very seriously. Not just 1-year married anniversaries, but all kinds of others. This weekend, we celebrated 2 very special ones. Our 2 year dating anniversary, and our 6 months being married. At first, we wanted to go out of town somewhere to just retreat away from it all. But then, thanks to a text message from my friend Karen, she gave me the perfect idea mid week. So then began the surprises… and I started torturing Stephen telling him I knew the perfect place for us to go for our anniversary. He couldn’t stand not knowing, but I loved the anticipation.
First, he surprised me by sending me 2 dozen roses to celebrate our 2 years together.
Then Friday when we were done with our work, we made a very important decision:
Do not open email until we are back at our desks Monday morning. This includes turning email off on our phone. This includes checking Facebook… all weekend.
Working from our home can be a fine line of being out of the office, yet watching TV at night, and oh, ding, a work email comes through, sure let me check it. As we approach 6 months of being married, we are still trying to find that balance of shutting the office door behind us and not doing work related things when we should be spending personal time together. But what this weekend taught us is that, it’s ok to unplug and not do anything work related on a weekend we aren’t shooting. It’s how the rest of the world operates, and it’s ok if we do too.
Friday night we had a delightful dinner at a Parisian restaurant, and finished with dessert at a Hawaiian restaurant. I surpised Stephen with tickets to the Jacksonville Jaguars vs. San Diego Chargers game this December (he’s a huge Chargers fan!) Then Saturday, I kicked Stephen out of the house for a few hours because I told him I had to make preparations for us to go somewhere. The whole time he thought we were actually going somewhere because we had been discussing other options earlier in the week. And what he came home to discover was…….. we were going to Camp Knuth on our back patio. And he absolutely loved it!
It ended up being such a much needed retreat for us, just escaping from the rest of the world and all things technology. Sure we could have gone to a fancy hotel and spent a lot of money, but one thing we are realizing with our marriage is that sometimes, the best things in life are the ones that don’t cost a penny.
HOW TO CREATE A ROMANTIC GET-A-WAY AT HOME:
SUPPLIES NEEDED:
1 Patio (or backyard or living room or random space)
3-5 sheets from your linen closet
1 roll of sticky package tape
1 box of pizza
1 card game
1 firepit
Ingridients for s’mores
2 sleeping bags (or feather beds on the ground with sheets and comforter)
1 pitcher of your favorite drink
2 plastic cups with your names written on them
1 bowl of popcorn
2 Flashlights
2 snuggly pajamas
1 blindfold (to surprise them, duh!)
5 or so candles
2 signs printed from your computer about your campgrounds
1 iPhone or other music player to play your favorite songs
1 cute snuggly poodle with an Eskimo jacket
STEPS:
1. Tell your spouse you are going somewhere fun and they must leave the house so you can pack and prepare for the surprise get-a-way.
2. Order pizza so it can be cooking while you prepare.
3. While your loved one is gone, grab all the sheets from the linen closet you can find.
4. One by one, use your packing tape to start taping sheets whereever they will stick.
4. Set up your sleeping bags or other sleeping arrangements.
5. Print out cute cartoon camp signs. I found our camping pics on the internet and personalized them.
6. Grab some snacks, drinks, napkins and plates, from the kitchen.
7. Find candles around the house and light them.
8. Bring some card or board games into the middle of your bed.
9. Text your loved one to come home.
10. When they come home, blindfold them and bring them to the fort and yell SURPRISE!!
