A Surprise Christmas Gift for your Husband (or wife)!

Okay friends,

I'm going out on a limb sharing this with you here because I really want it to be a surprise for Andrew for Christmas!  However, I think it is such a neat idea, and it would be a shame to wait until after Christmas to share it with you!  Also, Andrew has amazing self-control when it comes to not being curious about things he knows are a surprise, so the only way he should find out is if one of you tells him - please don't! :)

I originally saw the idea for a "Year of Dates" here, and she explains it really well and has lots of good tips for organizing it.  Also, if you go on Pinterest and search "a year of dates", you will get lots of other similar pins as well:

Search "a year of dates" on Pinterest

The basic idea is this:  You put together 12 pre-packaged dates for you and your spouse - one for each month of the year.  You may simply include a page explaining what you will do, or you may add things like gift-cards, little presents to go with the date, or anything else you can think you!

I decided to split my date ideas into three categories:

• outdoor dates, 
• eating-related dates, and 
• free dates

We are trying to save money and so I've tried to keep costs for the dates low, and planned things that can come out of our monthly "date" budget throughout 2014.  We try to plan two dates a month - one recreational one, and one more conventional one (ie: dinner), so I know these will fit in with our routine.

Some ideas of what I'm including are:

• A new board game and a plan to get take-out (this is for the month our baby is due!)
• A triple-date: bowling with our parents (we did this two years ago and had so much fun we've been wanting to do it again!)
• A picnic date (this is sort of a "free" and an "eating" date)
• Rock climbing (one of the more expensive dates, but an activity we both enjoy and have probably only done twice together)
• Starbucks gift card and a date brainstorming dates for 2015 (this will be the December one)

So that's the plan!  And I would LOVE to hear your creative input for more ideas!!