Anyone can splurge on a formal dinner or a pricey bottle of perfume, but it takes creativity and forethought to be truly romantic.

The key lies in personalizing your celebration. Here are ten ideas to fuel your own creativity:

1. Empty a box of chocolates. Then cut out 50 to 100 hearts from lace doilies, construction paper, or fabric. On each cutout, record something about your mate that you love. Be specific, “The way you smell when you come to bed at night,” “The way you take care of me when I’m sick,” “Your recipe for pancakes”…Fold the cutouts, place them in the chocolate box, and top with a red satin bow.

   The time you spend coming up with these ideas will contribute to your own romantic mood, and what your partner thinks is a plain-old box of chocolates will instead be a treasured gift for years to come. Plus, you can add to the box for future birthday, holiday, or Valentine’s Day celebrations.

    

2. Build a romantic fire. Before the kids go to bed, have fun roasting marshmallows. After their lights are out, host your own indoor picnic, complete with a bottle of wine and chocolate-covered strawberries. 
3. Recreate your first date together. What were you wearing? Where did you go? Do you remember what you talked about? Spend the evening reminiscing and reflecting on how far you’ve come as a couple. 
4. Spoon all night. 
5. Choose a book in which you are both interested, fiction or nonfiction. Read a new chapter each night before bed. This cozy tradition will allow you to spend some quality time together and often makes for thought-provoking breakfast conversations. 
6. Make a tape of the songs special to your relationship. Include “your song,” songs from your wedding, songs from favorite movies. Add a personal voice dedication and leave it in your partner’s briefcase, Walkman, or car stereo. 
7. Turn off the TV. 
8. Kidnap your spouse. Arrange for a babysitter for a few hours–or a few days. A friend of mine had a lot of success with this one. She knew her husband had always wanted to get married in Vegas, but he had agreed to a large, formal ceremony hosted by her family. So, after they had been married 10 years, she surprised him at work with a packed suitcase. They caught an evening flight and renewed their vows before an Elvis impersonator in a Vegas chapel. Years later, they’re still talking about it. 
9. This one requires a babysitter, too. Next time you’re visiting your parents or in-laws, leave the kids with the grandparents and travel to another town, where no one will recognize you. Check into a hotel or B&B. Dress like another person. Act like another person. It’s fun to slip into another persona from time to time. 
10. Have a scavenger hunt. Write a few poems, wrap candy kisses inside, and hide them around the house. Each poem should be a clue to finding the next one. Make sure the final clue lands your mate someplace you want to end up for the entire evening. A romance package, including a bottle of champagne and new lingerie, is a nice touch.

Create some romantic memories today. Not with your pocketbook, but with your imagination.

Copyright 2004 Susie Cortright

About The Author
Susie Michelle Cortright is the author of Rekindling Your Romance after Kids and More Energy for Moms. She is also the founder of the award-winning Momscape.com, a website designed to help busy parents find balance. Visit www.momscape.com today and get Susie’s *free* course-by-email “6 Days to Less Stress.”

It’s easy for parents today to get swept up in their children’s lives. From the minute we take them home, put on their first diapers, and give them their first bottles, we begin trying our best to fulfill all of our children’s needs and demands. Get some tips for reconnecting and romance from Kathryn Sansone, who’s mom to 10 kids as well as the author of Woman First, Family Always: Real-Life Wisdom from a Mother of Ten.

While I am a firm believer in being a thoughtful, committed parent, I also know that if couples don’t put their relationship first (most of the time), then no amount of devotion to their kids will keep their relationship alive.

That said, I also realize that it’s not easy to keep a healthy balance between thinking of ourselves as both partners and as parents. How do we achieve the right balance that makes us feel that we are doing a good job as parents without losing sight of the reason you became a family in the first place?

Carve out time
Despite so many kids, so many demands, and so much enjoyment we get from our kids, Jim and I always carve out time for just the two of us. It’s not always easy, but we don’t waste time trying to figure out if we deserve it.

One night last summer we did just that. It was a Friday and I had been with the kids all week. I was exhausted and had spent all my energy reserves. As usual the kids had a swim meet and Jim and I had planned to meet there to watch them race. When he arrived from the office, we took one look at each other and knew we needed to create time for just the two of us. At the end of the swim meet, we took the kids to McDonald’s (not something we regularly do) and then home. Once they were showered, in their pajamas, and set for bed, we headed out the door, leaving the older kids to babysit.

We didn’t deliberate over whether the kids were okay — we knew they were safe and sound. And we also knew it was just as important for us to have time alone. We had a lovely — albeit short — dinner out and enjoyed every minute of it.

The best gift you can give your children is a loving relationship with your spouse. When children know — and witness — their parents putting aside time for each other, kids understand that their parents are committed to each other. They also know that their parents love each other. In turn this love between their parents makes kids feel safe, enabling them to grow unhindered, following their own unique destinies.

On the other hand when children are always put first or experience rancor between their parents, constant fighting, verbal violence, or a lack of trust, then children question the very root of their foundation. Such a lack of safety breeds internal chaos and insecurity — two obstacles to healthy self-esteem and confidence. Show your love
For both your children’s sake and your own, it’s important to put energy into your primary relationship. Show your love toward him in front of your kids. Take time to be alone with your spouse. Your kids couldn’t have a better gift than to know their parents love and respect each other and like to spend time with each other.

Taking time to reconnect
Even if you feel wiped out at the end of the day, you will feel reenergized simply by reconnecting with your spouse. Granted you may not have the energy to greet him with a beautiful smile on your face each night, but if you do it often enough, he will know that you care about him in that way.

Consider these ways to reconnect with your spouse:

If you’re at the stage of wanting to organize a naming ceremony for your baby, then you already know that babies have their own schedule, which doesn’t always align with yours. At certain times of the day they are more sociable, more alert, and more amenable to the sort of activities a naming ceremony involves. For a baby this means being clean, being rested, and not being hungry.

Your first priority should be to work out the time of the day that your baby will be at his or her social best. This is often mid-morning or early afternoon, but not every baby keeps to the same timetable. So the primary consideration must be choosing a time for the ceremony which fits your individual baby’s feeding/sleep schedule.

A name giving ceremony must always be conducted on “baby time”. This means that as well as being scheduled at the best time for the particular baby, there must be enough time to pause the ceremony and tend to the baby’s needs (or the needs of another baby present) if the baby needs changing, feeding or generally soothing.

Celebrants also have schedules, and these frequently involve not only time of the day but day of the week. Here in Brisbane mid-afternoon on any Saturday between September and February is peak demand time for weddings (70% of weddings take place on a Saturday), which tends to result in celebrants who also do weddings being heavily booked. By contrast only about 20% of weddings happen on a Sunday, so scheduling your naming ceremony for a Sunday will mean you will have a greater choice of celebrant, and, if you are planning to have the ceremony in a park or other venue apart from your home or the home of a friend or relative, greater choice of venue, too. Scheduling your ceremony in the morning will also give you greater choice than the afternoon.

Other considerations may include

• A significant date. First birthdays are not uncommon, but it could equally well be another day of significance to you.
• The light. In Queensland, for example, the best light for outdoor photographs is the morning, so if you wish to have an outdoor naming photography might be important.
• Heat. The time of the day the area you want to use will be shaded should get priority in the hot weather.
• Work and other commitments of guests and participants, or travel arrangements for far-flung family and friends.
• Your time-line. If you are planning to schedule your ceremony in the near future you have to be far more flexible than if your proposed date for your ceremony is a long time off.

A good celebrant whose schedule fits yours, a relaxed and happy baby, and an environment that is comfortable for all guests, are the ingredients that make for a happy and relaxed ceremony. All it takes is a little bit of juggling.

Copyright © 2005 Jennifer Cram.

About the Author
Jennifer Cram is an accredited General Civil Celebrant based in Brisbane Queensland Australia where she specializes in performing one of a kind Naming Ceremonies as Beautiful as your Baby and other ceremonies. For more information about her naming ceremonies visit her website www.jennifercram.com and/or her Baby Naming Blog.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com