Date Night - Scrabble In The Park

I’m always on the lookout for different things I can do for a day or an evening with just me and my Queen. Sure, there’s always weekend trips to Paris or London, but whose budget allows for that? Ours doesn’t. Still, the main thing is to make sure you regularly make the time to spend some alone time with your spouse. With the job, kids, house repairs, other obligations of life, it’s easy to let the romance part slide but I firmly believe it’s an essential part of a happy marriage. 

I don’t let money, (or the lack of it) keep me from planning something to do either. In fact, most of our dates are pretty inexpensive. I just shake my head when I hear people talking about what they think they have to spend to have a good time.  My Dad always said, “When you love somebody, there is magic in just being with that person.”  That’s what I’m going for every date... the magic of being together with the one I love. 

Of course, it takes more planning to find different things to do than just to go out to a restaurant or a movie for an evening and I’m not saying that those aren’t acceptable dates. But I do like to surprise my Queen by doing different and unusual things with her.

Sometimes, in order to set something up I have get help from some of my buddies, but I’ve always found my friends are more than happy to help me out. I wouldn’t doubt if some of them steal some of my ideas for their own date nights. I’m not embarrassed to say that in our neighbourhood, I’m considered to be quite the romantic.

When my Queen and I were first married and didn’t have two nickels to rub together, we spent many an evening playing scrabble after supper. As the kids came along, we just didn’t seem to have the time anymore. When the Queen mentioned in passing that she missed our old scrabble games, it gave me an idea for a date night.

We have some really nice parks close by with picnic tables and free-standing barbeques. All I needed was a few groceries, a table cloth and dishes and our scrabble board. If we can walk to wherever our date night is, all the better. It gives us more time to talk, and we get exercise to boot. If I have to haul supplies, I have the choice of the kids’ wagon or a fold up shopping cart that can hold a lot of stuff.

This time I took the wagon and put a tote box inside. In the tote I had a small bag of barbeque briquets, a couple of nice steaks in a plastic container with a lid pre-marinated and spiced, a salad made up in a bowl with a lid and a bottle of dressing on the side, a couple of fresh buns already cut and  buttered and some pudding cups for dessert. I also brought a pot with a lid and a long handle and I put some oil in the bottom and some popcorn to pop over the coals later. For drinks, I made a big gallon jar of ice tea with lots of ice cubes and a lid that screwed on tight so it wouldn’t spill. All I needed for dishes was couple of plates, steak knives and forks and teaspoons for the pudding and two glasses and napkins. Last, I threw in a plastic bag to put our dirty dishes in afterwards, a table cloth and the scrabble game and our sweaters in case it got chilly later on.

We set up the scrabble board while the steaks were cooking and before it was time to pack up and go home before the park closed and it was dark, we’d gotten in 2 games. I won the first game and the Queen won the second. We had no choice, but to plan another scrabble date for later when we could play the rubber.