10 Hot Date Night Ideas for Married Couples

Kathi Lipp, Erin Macpherson

Description

Remember back when you were first married? The romance, the candlelit dinners, the anticipation of that good night kiss . . . and then you had kids. Let's be blunt: kids, while adorable and lovable and a gift from God, are romance killers. Suddenly come-hither looks are replaced with bleary-eyed glances accompanied by the vague notion that the guy across the dinner table looks familiar, but you just can't quite place him.Well, that guy is your husband and the two of you deserve more! It's time to put your marriage first, to commit to intentional (and intense!) romance. We all have budgets and packed schedules, so inside this short ebook you'll find tips and tricks that fit your lifestyle.If you're ready to fall in love all over again, you're ready for this Hot Mama Challenge!

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 21 juillet 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781493400164
• Langue: English

Extrait

© 2015 by Kathi Lipp and Erin MacPherson
Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4934-0016-4
Published in association with Books & Such Literary Agency, 52 Mission Circle, Suite 122, PMB 170, Santa Rosa, CA 94509-7953.
To Cameron, of course, and all of my date night double-date pals—Mollie, Sarah, Alisa, and Stevi—who make date nights (and friend nights) so much fun.—EM
To Roger, who makes every night a date night.—KL
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Infinity Commercials Are the New Movie Night
2. The Red Hot Date Night Challenge
3. Red Hot Date Night Challenge #1: Progressive Burger Dinner
4. Red Hot Date Night Challenge #2: Lights, Camera, Get Some Action!
5. Red Hot Date Night Challenge #3: A Night at the (Don’t) Drive-In
6. Red Hot Date Night Challenge #4: Glamp Out
7. Red Hot Date Night Challenge #5: Re-create the Date
8. Red Hot Date Night Challenge #6: Chef de Surprise
9. Red Hot Date Night Challenge #7: The $10 Adventure
10. Red Hot Date Night Challenge #8: Theme Night
11. Red Hot Date Night Challenge #9: Moonlight Sporting
12. Red Hot Date Night Challenge #10: Yelp’s Choice
13. What Our Friends Say about the Red Hot Date Night Challenge
Continuing Your Red Hot Journey
Sneak Peek for Hot Mama
About the Authors
Books by Kathi Lipp and Erin MacPherson
Back Ads
Back Cover
Acknowledgments
Much thanks to our amazing team—Andrea Doering, Jessica English, Lindsay Davis, and the rest of the Revell team, as well as Rachelle Gardner at Books & Such Literary—for being steady, smart, and wise when we are often off in our own creative worlds doing the things writers do. We couldn’t do this without you guys, and we are so grateful for each of you.
Huge thanks to our amazing, fun, generous, creative, smart (and a million other adjectives) friends and their brave husbands who so happily tried out all of our crazy dating ideas and gave us feedback on what worked and what didn’t. The list is long, but special thanks to Christy Ahart, Mollie Burpo, Melissa Carter, Sarah Craven, Emily Diess, Alisa Dusan, Michelle Halvorsen, Annie Hoffman, Katie Kessel, Laura Marion-Faul, Dina Morris, Rebecca Palmer, Mollie Pierce, Stevi Schuknecht, Leslie Spencer, Bianca Vimont, and Sarah Windham.
Introduction
It all started with an Infinity car commercial.
You know which one we’re talking about, right?
A debonair man in a tuxedo winks at a leggy blonde across a crowded room. She smiles that come-hither smile and he walks over to strike up a conversation. The conversation turns into an invitation to go somewhere quieter. Somewhere quieter turns into a drive in modern-day Mr. Darcy’s snazzy car. They laugh away the night until she scandalously invites him into her house. The camera cuts to the couple lying snuggled together in the morning light when—punch line—two cute kids hop into their bed to give Mommy and Daddy a good morning kiss.
The commercial is sappy and romantic and adorable . . . and exactly like our real-life romances with our husbands. This week alone, we have gone on a combined twelve super-romantic dates just like Mr. and Mrs. Infinity. Just one glimpse at our marriage scrapbooks and you’ll see pages and pages of dazzling photos and sappy sentiments that document our love. Our lives are literally just bursting with romance and flowers and new, expensive gowns.
Oh, and lies.
This may come as a shock, but our lives are absolutely nothing like the Infinity couple’s. There are no tuxedos or ball gowns or snazzy cars (unless you count an eight-year-old Ford Explorer with permanent Cheerios crust on the floor). Neither of us has stayed out past 11:00 p.m. in months, and if you tried to call us leggy . . . well, we’ll just stop there. Truth be told, our kids, our schedules, and our crazy lives up and stole our romance.
It wasn’t always this way. I (Erin) remember one weekend when my husband and I hopped into our car after work on a Friday afternoon and started driving south from our apartment in Portland, Oregon. We held hands and talked through the night as we drove and arrived at the Golden Gate Bridge right as the sun started to rise. We enjoyed a quick walk on the pier and breakfast in the city before we jumped into the car again and drove the twelve hours back home, arriving just in time for church Sunday morning. Was our weekend jaunt a crazy, ridiculous waste of time and gas money? Of course! But we didn’t care because we were all hopped up on sappy, romantic dreams.
Then we had kids. To be clear, kids are romance stealers in the nicest, most adorable way. There’s just something about kid-related things like breast-feeding and diaper changing and figuring out how to explain physics to your six-year-old so he stops peeing all over the wall that can really kill the romance in a marriage. Toss in a few snarky remarks (from you, not your kids) and a hefty dose of exhaustion, and you have the perfect formula for what we like to call “Married with Kids Syndrome.”
We’ve had it for years.
But the Infinity commercial made us realize that being married with kids doesn’t have to be that way. Sure, the people in the commercial were paid actors that (a) probably didn’t drive an Infinity and (b) certainly didn’t have kids, but the idea was good. Parents don’t have to lose that impulsive, romantic, talk-all-night swagger just because there’s a baby in the house. And we don’t have to settle for nights on the couch watching Infinity commercials when there’s a whole world of romance to explore.
There is an antidote. This year, we (Kathi and Erin) have been exploring how to have a hot married life as we’ve written our book Hot Mama and our three short ebooks. We asked friends. We asked experts. We even asked Google. And we came up with ten fun, flirty, and totally romantic date night ideas that will help you bring that hot mama romance back into your life this year.
Will you join us as we get a little flirty, a little fun, and a little Infinity commercial–ish with our husbands? As we choose to put our marriages first and set our busy, crazy lives aside for just one night and focus on us?