I don’t know about you, but I love the week between Christmas & New Year’s Day! These are the best days; the preparation and work for Christmas and all the celebrations are complete; I don’t really care what the house looks like, cleaning is unimportant; there’s still plenty of food in the fridge (SO.MUCH.FOOD), therefore, cooking is optional; I’m not a post-Christmas sale shopper and avoid the crowds. This is a perfect time for enjoying time together, sleeping in, playing family games and just hanging out! When any of my kids are home, I just want to put all mundane things aside and spend time with them, because I know that time is fleeting and soon, they will be gone and I can get back to the task of day to day life.
And, that’s exactly what we did until the weekend when all 4 of my children had other plans! What is this madness? My two daughters went out of town for my oldest daughters Bachelorette Weekend, my oldest son and his wife had to go out of town unexpectedly, so my youngest son stayed at their house to dog sit. Mark and I had the weekend and the house to ourselves. This was going to be a great test run for when we are legitimate empty nesters and my youngest leaves for college in August!
And it was great, but not necessarily how we thought it would be.
What we thought we would do: Go on a romantic dinner for two, maybe even go into the “city”. We love to do this, but rarely do, because quite honestly, we are both homebodies. At the end of the day, we like sitting on the couch in our pjs with puppies in our lap watching TV and playing HQ at 9:00. Now is the time to put on something fancy and live it up!
What we actually did: Cheeseburger Bobby’s and Aquaman. Y’all! My husband is a total movie nerd. Name a movie, he can tell you the year (and maybe even the month) it was released, who starred in it and who directed it. He REALLY wanted to see Aquaman. And, I love my husband and going to dinner and a movie is totally in my comfort zone. And, seriously…Jason Momoa. ‘Nuff said.
Lesson learned: Be intentional about doing things out of the normal. We’ll never stop going to movies and that’s good, we enjoy doing that! But we need to plan and be intentional about new and different things. When #4 leaves the house, we are going to want to have exciting things to look forward to!
What we (really “I” on this one) thought we would do: I have always wanted to do a couples Year in Review. I am not the world’s greatest communicator. I am the middle child and the peacemaker and love to avoid any difficult conversations. Yes, I’m an avoider. So, I have always wanted to do this, because I crave feedback, but fear negative conversation. I know, I know, that’s a whole separate blog post!
What we actually did: Spent 4 hours cleaning out our closet, dressers and the random piles of stuff that accumulated in our bedroom. Our bedroom had turned into a future episode of Hoarders. We have master on the main, and it inevitably turns into the easy place to just put stuff when it needs to be out of the way. And also, true confessions, I’m not the world’s greatest housekeeper either. And, although it wasn’t initially in my mind as the perfect way to spend a free weekend, it did give me joy when we were done. I slept like a baby last night. And, shout out to the hubs, who could individually clothe a small country with his t-shirt and hoodie collection, for donating TWO TRASH BAGS full of clothes!
Lesson learned: It’s not too late! I found this cute little conversation starter online for Couples Year in Review. Watch out Mark!
What we thought we would do: Spend time together gazing into each other’s eyes, eating chocolate covered strawberries, walking around the house naked…just kidding. We never thought we would do this, but I certainly didn’t want to do what we actually did!
What we actually did: Went to the mall to exchange Christmas presents. This is one of my least favorite things to do. It’s right up there next to cleaning the toilet. I am not a shopper and the mall is like the devil to me. Why is the mall even a thing anymore? I prefer the cute little boutiques in the little quaint downtown area of my hometown. I have avoided the mall for MONTHS! But, the beautiful watch my husband purchased for me from Macy’s had a dead battery right out of the box and in my online ordering frenzy I inadvertently ordered two sets of the same pajamas for my 5 year old nephew. I had to go… ugh.
Lesson learned: Anything is tolerable when you are with someone you love and have fun spending time with. Even the mall. With our busy schedules, and just life’s everyday tasks, we don’t get a lot of time just to be together. And, while walking through the mall hand in hand, I found the perfect little inspirational bracelet to wear to kick off the New Year!
We really did have a great weekend together, and it did make me realize that we do have some prep work to do! Day to day things are necessary and unavoidable and can be fun. But, intentionality and follow through are going to be important when we are going to have weeks and months together, just the two of us.
What do you and your spouse do differently now with the kids gone and how are you intentional with your time together? Help a sista out!
