Date Week

Over the last several years Laura and I have started a tradition of sorts. We like to get away during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. The intensity and chaos of multiple Christmases is behind us and the decorations have been taken down and stored.

Yes – you read that correctly! The decorations have been up since a week or two before Thanksgiving, and they usually come down the day after Christmas.

This is actually part of the get away strategy. Laura enjoys the get away much more if she is not dreading the process of taking down the decorations when she comes home.

This year, as we were taking down the decorations, I noticed we had several gold hearts on the tree. I suggested that we take those and put them on the little Christmas tree we have in our bedroom and leave it up for a while as a Valentine Tree. In spite of the fact that our children gagged at the idea, we did it anyway!

In previous years we have gone to NYC, Fredricksburg, and the Hyatt Lost Pines resort during our get away week.

This year we stayed home. But, we turned it into a date week.

We went to three movies together The Blind Side, Its Complicated and Up in the Air.

By the way, as a former left tackle myself, and a charter member of the elite "Former Left Tackles Association," I highly recommend The Blind Side.

For New Year’s Eve, we did something random: We went to Priceline.com and said we wanted a 5 star hotel and that we were willing to pay $ 49. We got a great room at the Marriott near the Texas Motor Speedway. We also ate at Vidalia’s Southern Cuisine – outstanding shrimp and cheddar grits!

It was a great start to the new year.

I am always encouraging couples to be diligent in maintaining a date night routine. We set the bar for everyone by having a date week!