Date Night...

Wednesday evening, my hubby and I got ourselves a babysitter and headed out for the evening.  This is something we rarely do--probably because having only one child makes it fairly easy to go out on a regular basis as a family.  Beth Marie is low maintenance and pleasant company, so we generally prefer to include her.  But we've found that it is important, occasionally, to be "intentional" about dating--to reaffirm our roles as "husband and wife" when we're so very used to living day to day life as "Mom and Dad".   So, we did something we haven't done since...well...probably before we were married.  We brought a camera on our date.  :-)  So, I know this could be scandalous, but you're about to join us on an evening out. Our date began here... 

 ...for a little Christmas shopping and a couple of holiday chocolate molds.  (I should just insert that I LOVE Hobby Lobby!)  After our brief stop at Hobby Lobby, we ventured downtown for dinner:  

Mike had been here recently for lunch with coworkers, and he decided he would have to take me there for a date.  It was excellent!  The atmosphere was amazing.  The whole place was decked-out for Christmas.  Since we rarely go to trendy night spots in Rochester, I must have looked like a kid in a candy store; I was so mesmerized by all of the lights and sparkling trinkets.  I was in a little Christmas dreamworld.  :-)  It was hard to capture the dimly-lit atmosphere in photographs, but here are a few pictures:



The food was also amazing.  I would have taken pictures, but the people sitting on either side of us were obviously more...umm..."socially refined" and probably already thought I was weird for snapping pictures of all of the lighting.  But Mike had seafood jambalaya and I had prime rib with garlic smashed potatoes.  Mmm.  :-)  They had an open kitchen, and it was fun to watch all of the cooks bustling around preparing the meals. 

After dinner, we wandered around the shops briefly.  Oh, and snapped a quick self-timer portrait on a bench:

After dinner, we made a quick stop here...

...for a new toilet seat.  Yes, you read that correctly.  We found the perfect new seat for our throne on display.  We were tempted to have a seat to try it out, but...

...they asked that we didn't.  With that mission accomplished, we intended to go next door to Caribou.  But, having pulled into the parking place only 1 minute before closing, the lady came out and locked the door in front of us.  Oh well...  So, we went here instead...

...for a little dessert before heading home.  It was a very good date.  :-)  And guess what?  We'll have a couple hours alone together tonight for some Christmas shopping.  That's twice in a week!  I love Christmas vacation...