I had mentioned in a previous entry that I had proposed to my husband that we each take six months out of the year (I have the even-numbered months, he has odd) to plan a date for the other. We decided to start it this month, and since it's the tenth month, it's my turn!
I have to admit, I was a little nervous while planning this! I didn't want to do the normal 'dinner and a movie' date, because I feel like that's kind of a cop-out for us. We don't have any children or any pets yet, so dinner and a movie is not exactly something that we can't do very often. We usually have at least one day every weekend free and we always have the house to the two of us, so we can be a little more elaborate and imaginative with our 'planned' date nights.
Since it's October, I definitely wanted to do something that had to do with Halloween and the fall season. So what goes with both?
Pumpkins.
Pumpkins are the staple of Halloween and Fall. I always know my favorite time of the year has arrived when Starbucks introduces it's Pumpkin Spice Latte. There's something about pumpkins that just makes me so stinkin' happy.
So, let's have a date that's all about pumpkins!
I originally was going to make us a picnic and eat at one of the local parks, but I decided to just go out to eat at a restaurant instead. Picnics this time of year can be tricky, especially since the temperature can drop fairly quickly and being cold during a picnic does not sound like a ton of fun to me. I didn't want to take any chances, so I picked Bonefish Grill instead. It has nothing to do with pumpkins, but it has Bang Bang Shrimp. That's a great enough reason to steer away from the pumpkin-theme for just a wee bit.
I kept the entire date a secret from Chris. I even drove the whole time, so he really didn't have an idea of what we were going. It made it even more fun to completely surprise him! And I enjoyed seeing his face of confusion and his many questions about where we were going next.
Before we headed to dinner, we stopped by a local church who has a huge pumpkin patch. They're not on a vine, but they have a ton of pumpkins in all shapes and sizes available to pick off the crates, and that's about as close as you can get to it around here. It's usually crowded on most nights leading up to Halloween, but there's always a ton of pumpkins available to buy.
Until we went.
I'm guessing they stock up their crates once on Saturdays, the day after we went. There were still a bunch of pumpkins, just not the selection I was hoping for. No worries though! We still found us two pumpkins :)
After we purchased our pumpkins, I then drove us over to Bonefish, where we had an awesome dinner. It was so nice to be able to sit across from Chris and just talk. There was no TV, no laundry, no dinner to cook. Just the two of us with all the time in the world to enjoy each other's company. But the restaurant does not have all the time in the world too, so we ended up leaving about an hour or so later.
After we finished dinner, we headed back to the house to carve our pumpkins. Earlier that day, I had gone to Wal-Mart and Kroger to get all of our supplies, plus some ingredients for a couple of desserts that I was going to make (more details on that coming up!). I wanted to have as much as possible done ahead of time, so that way I could just focus on Chris and our time together.
It took us quite a while to carve our pumpkins, but I think they turned out great! We had a great time laughing and cutting up with each other too. I think that's what made it so fun - not the pumpkins and carving out our masterpieces, but just, once again, spending that undivided attention with each other.
I never knew how much I would cherish those moments of undivided attention with my husband.
Once we finally finished our pumpkins, I got out the LED lights I had bought to put into them. Only then did I see that they each needed a 9V battery that was NOT included. So annoying. So, real candles it was! And I think they turned out super cute :)
Chris's is on the left, mine is on the right. Aren't they awesome?!
Once we cleaned up the guts and the utensils, I then brought out the desserts I had baked earlier! I was super ambitious with this date.
Before Chris got home and we started our date, I had baked a Caramel Apple Cobbler and a Pumpkin Crunch Cake. I should've only baked one since I still have over half of them in my fridge now, but they looked so good! I altered each recipe a little (I used Sprite instead of butter in the Apple Cobbler and I used 3/4 cup butter and no pecans in the Pumpkin Crunch), but they were still really good.
I also made us some Pumpkin Pie White Hot Chocolate, which was pretty good. I think I may do less pumpkin and more white chocolate next time, just because the pumpkin wasn't quite 'pureed' and I couldn't taste the chocolate. Still good though!
Once I had made the hot chocolate and loaded a plate full of the desserts for us to share, I popped 'It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!' into the DVD player and cuddled up next to Chris. He had never seen it before, which I found it so hard to believe! And since it had to do with pumpkins, I thought it was a perfect way to finish our date. Unfortunately, we were both still full from dinner, yet I was determined to eat some desserts. I probably stretched my tummy a little farther than it should go, but it was super yummy and so worth it.
All in all, I think the date was a huge success. It seemed like Chris really enjoyed it, and I know I had a blast. I don't think it was the pumpkin carving, or even the Bang Bang Shrimp that made it great. It was the simple fact that it was intimate time we could spend together. No work. No interruption. Just us.
I'm so glad we've decided to plan dates for each other throughout the year. At least I know that, for one day/night, he is all mine :)
I'm excited to see what Chris comes up with for next month...
