New Year's Day - Mommy & Daddy Date

Since my mom and Bob were in town, John and I decided to take advantage of free babysitting!  We had not been on a "date" in quite a long time, and we knew the time together would be really enjoyable.  Back in early December, John told me all he wanted for Christmas was a date with his wife.  So, I started thinking about what I could do to make that happen.  When I was in La Vernia for Christmas, a Groupon came up for the outdoor skating rink in Discovery Green, which is in downtown Houston.  They convert part of the park to an outdoor skating rink for a few months in the winter.  I thought it might be something fun and "outside the box" for us to do.  In addition, I was given a very generous gift from one of my students for Christmas (a $100 bill) so I decided to use that for our dinner.

We started out by going to a late afternoon movie.  We went to see This Is 40, which was funny, and we both enjoyed the time.  We haven't been to a movie in a theater since before Kinley was born.  Then, we went to dinner at Salt Grass.  We had an appetizer AND dessert, and it was all delicious!  Then, we headed downtown to ice skate.  I was pretty nervous, because I hadn't ice skated since I was in college.  John spent a lot of time ice skating when he was growing up in Canada, so he got into it pretty quick.  We both ended up taking a little spill at different times, but it was a lot of fun.  It was something totally different, and we really enjoyed just getting out and doing something together.  Gramps and Gran enjoyed their time with Kinley, and John and I had a great time just reconnecting as a couple.