Honey, Let’s Do Something Different
Creative Valentine’s Day or date night ideas for the organizationally challenged
By Janna Zepp
Valentine’s Day is not my favorite holiday. I confess, while I do appreciate romance, this particular holiday seems to force the concept, and that rather ruins the experience for me. I enjoy dining out, especially fine dining, but my husband and I are far better at planning a “no occasion” dinner date than we are for this day. It seems we both just forget that day is coming and then try to make plans on the fly on the week of Valentine’s Day.
This year, it falls on a Monday, which adds to the planning obstacle course. In the interest of having a backup plan if we can’t get into our favorite places, I’ve made a list of alternative plans that have often worked for us and a few things I plan on trying for a creative date adventure in the future:
Dine in.
Grill steaks, dig out that great recipe you found on Pinterest and have been dying to try at home, plan a romantic dinner for two right in your own home. It sounds cliché, but I promise you, it is not. My husband and I try to have at least one night a week at home during which one of us does some “fancy” cooking, or we cook together. We haul out the good china, set the table, use the good linens and make a point of eliminating distractions such as the TV and our smartphones, and turn on playlists that set the mood. It’s a great opportunity to reconnect over great food.
Take a weekend getaway off the beaten path.
Throw a dart at a map of Texas and wherever the dart lands check the area out online for where to stay and what to do while you’re there. The only rules are that the getaway cannot be in a big city or at a resort where everyone else usually goes. This could be fun or it could be a disaster. Either way, you will both learn who you really are as a couple.
Enjoy the theater or explore a local museum.
Visit the Cultural Activities Center (cacarts.org), catch a play or musical at Temple Civic Theatre or Vive les Arts! in Killeen and check out some of our local museums, such as the Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum in Temple, the Bell County Museum in Belton, and the 1st Cavalry Museum at Fort Hood. These are activities that require you to interact with each other and learn things about your partner that you never knew before.
Explore local restaurants with international flavor.
Temple and Belton have some great restaurants serving Asian fare. Walburg, just down Interstate 35 from Bell County, is famous for its German restaurant, and downtown Temple has a new Jamaican place that recently opened downtown (Ras Kitchen on Main Street). Venture into west Bell County. Killeen and Harker Heights have many interesting and exotic restaurants that feature cuisine from outside the United States, from Caribbean to Asian to Central and Eastern European. An online search will show you what you need to know.
Frank and I love a good wine bar picnic.
On our way to a wine bar that does not serve food, I swing by the deli section of my favorite grocery store and pick up what we need for a charcuterie/crudités board. I like to carry a picnic basket of reusable dishes and utensils with us to make our table setting a little more posh, not to mention it is more eco-friendly. Some wine bars of this type have an agreement with a nearby restaurant, or there’s usually a food truck out front. Whatever you do, it will be something tasty, fun, and you’ll talk about it for years to come.
The point of a date night or even Valentine’s Day is not about the activity itself or the money you spent, but that you, as a couple, took time to be together in a new and interesting way.
Love it or hate it, learn from it and grow together. You might just find a new, favorite Valentine’s Day tradition for which you actually plan in the future.
