#GetDateBox

Many people wish that they had a dramatic love story, a fairy tale romance, an epic beginning that sparked their happily ever after. But I have to tell you, it is a lot of pressure to maintain.

Randy and I met on the streets of France and spent our "first date" hiking the Pyrenees Mountains. And our next 34 dates walking across Spain. Each date entailed new restaurants, new foods, new scenery, new towns, new friends, new hostels and hotels, new adventures, and new conversations as we embarked on an unexpected journey to falling in love.

We wouldn't change a thing about it. Not one single thing.

But we've discovered that it is hard to live up to the standards of our initial dating life. How do you plan a date as exciting as the one in which we walked to a fountain that not only gave out water, but also wine? How do you measure up to seeing the arena in Pamplona where every year there is a running of the bulls? How do we date in "real life" when we're used to cathedrals and tapas and daily travels to unexplored lands?

As we found ourselves wrestling with these questions, along came DateBox! DateBox is a subscription service in which you sign up for one, three, or six months, and each month a box is delivered to you with everything you need for your date. Some couples have struggled with the idea because you aren't told in advance what is going to be in your box when it arrives. But that is half the fun for Randy and me. It reminds us of our beginnings, when we never knew what the day was going to hold. AND, more importantly, it reminds us that what is in the box isn't nearly as important as the fact that we are getting to spend some quality time together.

Our first box contained a gourmet meal. Even though Randy is a chef, it wasn't anything we had ever made in our home. We also never cook together, so that was something new (okay, I read the directions and he did the cooking, but we still did it together!).

Our second box contained a kit for making a gingerbread house. While this might be something we would think about doing with the kids and grandkids, we would never have thought to build one just the two of us. We're more the "lets go outside" type than the "lets get creative" type. But this was so much fun! We found ourselves working side by side, encouraging one another, and getting excited over each others creative ideas. Randy loved my Christmas lights adorning the eves of our house and I loved his icicles and his marshmallow roof!

Both of these dates were obviously designed to make us work together and presented opportunities for communication, both key in making a relationship work. We were also able to focus on the excitement of having a date together, rather than the pressure of coming up with a creative new idea on our own. And having this date right before the holidays was especially wonderful. We've been so busy that I know we wouldn't have made time for a date right before we go away to spend Christmas with the family!

We're looking forward to our next DateBox, which an insider's tip tells us is a group date (who wants to come?!)!


As we continue our theme of the "25 Prayers of Christmas," my prayer is that couples everywhere would be less focused on the "what" -- what do I buy, what do we do, what do I say -- and more focused on the "who" -- who has God blessed me with, who do I get to spend my time with, who can I love in this moment regardless of what is inside that box.


Interested in DateBox? Visit GetDateBox.com. I'll warn you: there is more information about this service on this blog page than you will find on the website. But remember, that is half the fun!