For the last few years, I've started with the goal of one date per month.
Well, y'all, it just hasn't happened.
This year we started really strong. I think we succeeded in keeping that goal all the way through May. But then life happened. Sicknesses, busyness, or simply nowhere to go. And the dates trickled off to one about every three months for the last half of the year.
Total bummer.
Some people might think it doesn't matter. After all, we're married. We live in the same house, see each other almost every day of our lives (not every day because sometimes I go on retreats ;) ). But it does.

Every couple brings his or her own history of holiday traditions with them when they come to the relationship. Sometimes that makes for a rocky first holiday. Can romance be found in tolerating each other at Christmas? Jenny McLeod Carlisle is guesting today and talking about just that. She's an author I count as a friend ... and I got to edit her soon-to-release book, which is really good so read all the way to the end!

Tolerance is my Christmas Love Language

                After forty-six years of marriage, my husband has become very good at putting up with my foibles.  I’m sure he could easily make you a list of quirks he elects to ignore. As the pages of the calendar diminish each year, my best friend’s tolerance is pushed to the limit.
                James and I met in high school, just weeks after I moved from my birthplace in Kansas to Arkansas. We were seniors at the same, small high school. That first Christmas in my new home, I was very sad. Our family didn’t make the trip to my grandmother’s house and I discovered the depths of homesickness. The familiar gathering with my cousins and all of the traditions involved turned out to be what I missed more than anything else.