December 2020 Date Jar: “Do something seasonal!”

What’s the ‘Date Jar’?

Have you ever heard someone say that the fun ends when you get married? What about ‘ball and chain jokes’ or advice to ‘sow your wild oats’ before you get married and have to ‘settle down’? Our culture has a tendency to portray marriage in such a negative light.  We know marriage comes with it’s many challenges, but we believe you can keep the butterflies alive long after you say “I do”!

When we got engaged, our friends gave us a jar filled with date ideas so that we could continue ‘dating’ even after we got married. Now, after being married over 4 years, we think about that jar and understand how truly important it is to set aside intentional time to have fun and try new things together. We believe that continuing to date after your wedding day is essential to building a strong, lasting marriage. Because of that, we gift all of our couples with a date jar filled with 52 different date ideas, some that we have personally already enjoyed, and some new ideas that we have always wanted to try together!

As we encourage couples just beginning their forever together, we thought it would be fun to share our dates to inspire all our friends, families, and couples to continue pursuing each other in marriage.

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Dating during COVID-19 has definitely been unique! Especially in California, most restaurants, movie theaters, shopping malls, and theme parks have been closed all year, forcing couples to get extra creative with the dates they plan. This month, along with take-out and Christmas movie date nights in, we decided to grab a date idea from the jar and see how creative we could get!

We grabbed “Do something seasonal!” Lucky for us, Christmas time gives us LOTS of options for seasonal dates, but with COVID restrictions, this added some limitations.

Because we are season ticket holders at Six Flags, we received a free invitation to attend their Holiday in the Parks Drive-thru Light Experience! We knew this would be the perfect COVID-approved date night. We filled our thermoses with apple cider and hot chocolate, threw Bailey in the backseat, and headed out! On the way, I placed a take-out order at the Local Pub and Grill in Valencia (HIGHLY recommend!!), and we talked while Bailey hung her head out the window enjoying the wind in her hair.

When we picked up dinner, we decided to set up our lawn chairs in the parking lot (all dine-in is currently unavailable in our area), bundle up in some blankets, and enjoy a picnic before our 6:30 reservation for the event. As excited as we were to see the park all decorated in lights, this meal was definitely the highlight of our evening. It was cold and by no means a ‘fancy’ date night in any way, but it was absolutely perfect 🙂 We shared a handful of delicious of appetizers while Bailey kept watch at our feet for dropped crumbs. Our favorite was by far the giant Bavarian pretzel!

Then we hit the park! We didn’t know what to expect since this was Six Flags’ first time ever doing a drive-thru Christmas event. And it did not disappoint! We drove through the entire park and enjoyed dozens of light displays as well as live performers. We sipped on our hot drinks while Bailey hung her head out the window and watched the whole time.

 

We hope you can find a creative way to celebrate the season together. Whether it’s just grabbing some cocoa and driving through neighborhoods adorned in lights, or watching a new holiday movie together, treasure that time to reconnect as we close out 2020 and head into the new year.

Check out the instagram reel we made from our date! We can’t wait to share more of our dates with you 🙂