Towards the end of the year, we moved into a new house and our date nights took a temporary backseat in favor of painting and renovating. However, we never miss celebrating the year ahead. Before I had my daughter, we would get dressed to the nines and dance all night at a huge party thrown by our favorite DJ’s in New York. Needless to say, my heels and ballgown are retired (for now) so we have to come up with creative ways to celebrate!
December 30 or 31, who cares? Last year, we started a tradition of going out the night before New Year’s Eve for a few reasons, and the first being the outrageous pricing of babysitters on 12/31. While I don’t begrudge any sitter for asking for extra cash (they are giving up their own celebration, after all), I just don’t feel like spending over $200 before I have even left the house! Another reason we like to hit the restaurants on the 30th is because there is usually no problem getting a reservation. Just a day later, there will be no regular menu, the staff will be overwhelmed, and I most likely will feel rushed. No thank you. 12/30 works just fine for us. Some years, we opt for a meal at home, popping some champagne and relaxing together. This year, we decided to stay at home after a very long holiday week of guests and parties. AND if you didn’t get a chance to celebrate a new year date….it’s still not too late!
Year in Review: I’m always looking for ways to preserve memories for the future. I really want to remember all of the wonderful things in my life and I look forward to handing these keepsakes down to my daughter in the future. In the spirit of preserving memories, I combed the internet for some ideas. I found this great printable from The Dating Divas that allows you to fill out the highlights of your year and share it with your partner. The best thing about this is that I can put each year’s responses in a book for us to review over the years. For those of you with older children, you can even have them fill one out (or help them to fill it in) so they can participate in all the fun. Since this was new to us this year, I plan to keep each subsequent year in the same binder so that we will have our “Year in Review” to look back on. Call me sentimental, but I really enjoy looking back on our memories over the years.
Technology-Free: Even though hubby and I like to watch a great movie together, this year we vowed to spend some quality time in our new living room while we chatted about the year. We both agreed to leave our phones for an hour at a time with short breaks to check in with our friends to see how their celebrations were going. Although I am an admitted Pinterest addict, I think it’s important to give your partner some undivided attention without the interference of technology. Since we do live in reality, giving up a phone for the whole night and missing out on all the fun photos might have been a lot to ask. It was definitely manageable with what we call “intervals.” If an hour doesn’t work for you, make your intervals shorter or longer. We scrapped the movie idea too, since we had lots to chat about after sharing our year in review. It’s a great conversation starter!
Making Plans: The best thing about a New Year date is that you get to think about all of the wonderful possibilities for the year ahead! We like to talk about upcoming birthdays, vacations, family events, and projects we would like to work on around the house. It doesn’t matter when you have your date night, the sentiment is still the same. Reflect on the wonderful memories you made and make a conscious effort to make lots more in the year ahead.
What are some of your favorite New Year’s date celebrations?
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