Overdue for a date night, I solicited my sister a month in advance to be on the docket to keep my kid so that I could guarantee my quality time love language husband a Valentine date night. I told him that Friday February 16th he was mine and left it at that.

As the day approached I was excited to spend some time with him just us two. He planned to get home from work at a decent time, and I shaved my legs. When he got home he said that he'd made us reservations at Ruth's Chris and wanted to know my thoughts. I told him my thoughts were that a flannel and comfy jeans sounded more appealing, and he quickly responded with "ok good me too because the new Dave and Busters opened and I was thinking maybe that instead. And we have already spent a lot this month."

When we were dating we went to a fancy restaurant one time on our first official date, didn't really enjoy ourselves, and never did that again. Instead we'd bowl or go to arcades or movies. Once we got married before we had kids we'd go to the shooting range, fishing, or to Starbucks in our sweat pants.

Because dates are fewer these days I think it can be easy to place silly pressure to really make them count. This mixed with it being Valentine's Day causes the whole Ruth's Chris idea to make sense. (The food there is superb by the way). For us though, our romance and relationship has always been consistently fun.

We ate at the bar to avoid the 2.5 hour wait. We talked and laughed and licked buffalo sauce off our fingers, me in my flannel and him in his ball cap. We played more games than most of the kids there. We both left with sore arms and the accomplishment of knowing we'd set the new record on the football throw and clown target games. I know there is nothing more attractive to my husband than to watch me hit the 99 point receiver every game without fail and beat him at deer hunter every time we play. We definitely made our date night count and I'm so glad we did it our way.

Romance doesn't have to be expensive or fancy. It can be if you want it to be, though! Sometimes we do. Romance doesn't have to look like anyone else's version of romance either. For us- we were best friends in college before realizing we were in love with each other so we have remained just that. Best friends who like to eat and play arcade games and whose romance looks a lot like a kid's birthday party.