Date Night

Last Monday I was told that we had a surprise on Saturday night and I had to be ready at 5:00 pm. No ifs, ands, or buts. I wasn't given any hints. None of my countless questions were answered: What should I wear? What are you wearing? Will it be cold? Are we going to eat? What should I bring? Etc. And as each day passed, I was reminded that we had really special plans on Saturday night. (Details were not released, much to my delight!)

When Saturday finally did roll around, I got more and more excited as the hours counted up to 5 o'clock. I was told numerous times not to ruin my appetite, but that was about it.

At 5:00 pm, Brian and I both had cleaned up quite nicely, and headed to...[destination: unknown].

Brian took the long way to get to downtown Columbus. Each turn we made he asked if I had any idea where we were headed. And, like a buzzer on a gameshow, each guess I had was wrong. In my defense, I could only make my guesses based on the available information, aka the direction we were headed, and since we took multiple turns that we really didn't need to take my guesses were slightly off the charts.

At last, we pulled up to the infamously stylish and posh restaurant Hyde Park. Brian had made reservations, dinner for two, at this classy, luxurious locale. His decision: this would be our night to celebrate Christmas.

I just love my husband.

We were waited on hand and foot. The food, the service, the atmosphere were all top notch, folks. (I wouldn't have expected anything less from the reputation this restaurant has!) We both ordered delicious steaks for dinner, and shared quite a laugh after we had to send them both back to be cooked longer! I had ordered medium-rare and Brian had ordered medium-well. Neither were what we expected! We may be rookies when it comes to fine dining but you've got to start somewhere, right?!

Midway through dinner, after thanking Brian profusely for the thought and effort in setting the night up, I mentioned that I had kind of secretly hoped that this surprise night would be tickets to go see The Nutcracker (a BalletMet production that is currently playing at the Ohio Theater), but that I was pleasantly surprised and still loved the night how it was. He brushed my comment off like a crumb on his pant leg and said, 'perhaps we can go after Christmas.' Knowing that this play probably wasn't playing too long after Christmas, I just agreed and in the back of my mind decided that it was something we could do next year.

After our fantastic dinner, Brian mentioned that our next and final stop would be to go ice skating at the capital. (Apparently, this is something that they do around the holidays.) I was skeptical, but decided I would believe it when I saw it, and that no matter what it would be fun!

We neared the capital and I begged Brian to make sure it was there so that we weren't wandering aimlessly around the capital ... in the cold. However, much to my dismay, he pulled into the parking garage beneath the capital...and parked. He assured me that we would figure it out.

When we exited the parking garage and turned the corner, the Ohio Theater was right there! Brian explained that we weren't going ice skating. We were going to see The Nutcracker! I was thrilled! (I admit, I was a tad sad because ice skating sounded like fun, but I was way more happy to be able to be sitting in a warm theater watching a 'what I would think would be incredible' play!)

It ended up being just that! The night was fantastic! The surprises were awesome! And our first married Christmas together will not be forgotten!