2nd Annual Twelve Dates of Christmas!

Last year, my husband and I took part in Twelve Dates of Christmas, something I had discovered on Pinterest. I blogged each date and it easily became something I wanted to do again. Around Thanksgiving, I began picking my brain to come up with new ideas for this year to begin a tradition of Christmas dates. Last year, I was in a Christmas production at my church, and felt like my time was so sparse. The idea of having the twelve dates was a way to make sure we were spending time together during the busy holiday season. Being the planner that I am, I spent HOURS trying to think of unique dates, putting them in the calendar, and making sure I had anything I needed to go with it. I knew it wouldn't go exactly as planned, and it hasn't (thanks to friends offering us tickets to things & what not), but at least I was putting forth the effort. I've had several people tell me how cute the ideas were and how they wish they were doing something similar.

My hope is that YOU will be inspired to create something like this for you and your loved one. It doesn't have to cost a lot of money (several of our dates were free minus a meal),  and it really isn't about the money. It's about the time spent together! I'm a picture person, so I like to document our dates with photos of everything. Thankfully my husband has learned to just roll with it and laughs at my camera obsessed life :). The memories we create through these dates make this Christmas season so special to me. Ladies, it's ok if your ideas are cheesy...it doesn't have to be a serious event every time. For goodness sake, I made salt dough ornaments during one of our dates. We have no children, nor do we really need more ornaments for the tree, but I had all the ingredients and it passed the time during the crazy ice storm we experienced, haha.

Instead of blogging each date this year, I've clumped it up into one post. Here is what we did this year on our 12 Dates of Christmas.

1. Lunch at Jearen's favorite restaurant & Christmas shopping. We needed a new tree topper as ours broke over the years, so we found the perfect one at Target.      

2. Dinner at the Iron Cactus in Dallas with our friends Caleb & Rachel (who also do a twelve dates of Christmas!!) then attended KISS FM's Jingle Ball (thanks to free tickets from our friends!)

3. Dallas Mavericks Basketball Game (we were given tickets to this as well!)

4. Texas Ice Storm '13- Made Homemade Chili & Carrot Cake/sledding/salt dough ornaments/self timer christmas pics (free)

5. Husband took me to doctor for a cough, watched Home Alone 1 & 2 (free)

6. Shopping & Dinner in Southlake

7. Shopping & Dinner in Irving

8. Dart Rail to Dallas' Klyde Warren Park (free, besides the dart tickets)

9. Texas Tenors Concert at Grapevine Opry House (tickets were given to us)

10. Dinner w/ Friends & looking at Christmas lights

11. Still deciding between ice skating (already purchased groupon) or dollar theater. This date is TONIGHT!

12. Christmas Day- opening presents/watching movies

I'm sure next year's dates will look completely different, but hopefully we can continue this tradition.
Ladies, let me know if you had any Christmas dates that are worth repeating! I'm always up for new ideas.

Becky