Monday, February 8, 2010

Date Night (Project 52) #4

Since Ailin's birthday parties are next weekend, I figured I'd be too busy to do anything special for Valentine's Day. In Japan, the girl is supposed to do something for her "man," so I decided to take the reigns and asked Yusuke if he would like to celebrate Valentine's a week early. He was game.

I decided on a whim to buy a little fondue pot and all the fixings for chocolate fondue. Fondue must be the in thing this year because fondue pots, chocolate sets, cheese sets, etc. can be found anywhere these days. (I had never experienced fondue before!)

After the kids went to bed, I prepared the plate of fruit and bread & made the chocolate using heavy cream and dark chocolate bars. The activity that I had planned went with this box you see in the picture. I wrote date night ideas on separate index cards and also added some blank cards. I was going to introduce the box to him, brainstorm some more ideas together and I figured this would magically lead to wonderful conversation.



I learned a few things from this date.
We had had a heavy, late steak dinner, so he was full and didn't feel much like eating fruit & chocolate. (Consider dinner menu when deciding the date menu.)

He got bored of eating the chocolate after about 4 bites. (Note that he might not be in the mood for tons of melted chocolate.)

He loved the idea of the box of date night cards, and he quickly added his own ideas to the mix. One idea he wrote down was to watch a soccer game together. Gre-e-e-at. Just what I wanna do, but let's keep an open mind. He balked at my idea of baking cookies together. (Note that his idea of a fun date may not be my idea of a fun date and vice versa.)

The conversation quickly halted when he got up to go and smoke outside and then came back to sit on the couch. He wanted to watch the DVD we had rented. Only 15 minutes had passed since the start of our date. (Make a plan B, so we can keep talking once plan A is finished.)

It was a good movie, by the way. "He's Just Not That Into You" is a relationship drama/comedy starring an ensemble cast of famous and not-so-famous actors. Just the kind of movie I like, and surprisingly Yusuke was seriously amused by it as well.

2 comments:

Tiffany said...

Hey, we just recently watched that movie and liked it too. Fun fondue idea. And that date night idea box is genius! Thanks for sharing and we'll see you next week!
Tiffany {Simply Modern Mom}

Jennifer said...

Hi Mande, I just read your interview on Tiffany's blog. I posted a comment there, but I also wanted to say that I have a wonderful Japanese friend there near Tokyo. She got her degree here in the U.S. and then did a year extension of her Visa working. That is when I met Hitomi, we worked together for a year and were great friends. She is back in Japan since 2004. She has a twin sister and she lives with her parents (who are also great people). If you are interested I could let you know her contact information and maybe you could meet for lunch or something.

I just moved from Washington to Kentucky, 4 day drive across country in July. Not as different as Japan, but definately different :) I have 2 girls ages 3 and almost 2.

Look forward to seeing more dates, I'm gonna try it too. And I can't believe the Japanese changed Valentine's Day into a mans holiday....that's just crazy!