Anyone can do romance on Valentine’s Day, but here are a few low-cost ideas for fueling your fire all year long and taking your romance level from blah to blazing:
Cyber-flirting. Take advantage of your partner’s time on their Blackberry, computer or cell phone. Throughout the day, send your other half flirty texts or e-mails. Keep it PG, but make your intentions and feelings clearly known. (Code words work great.) Just make sure to check the address before clicking send.
Spice up game night. With just a bit of creative flair, any board game can become a silly way to re-connect. Try collecting two kisses with your $200 every time you pass go or create a more romantic way to get out of jail free. At the very least, you’re spending a few hours actually talking to each other instead of parked in front of the TV.
Involve the postman. The well-written love letter is on serious life support. Resuscitate it by surprising your partner with a thank you note mailed to his/her workplace commending them for all the great stuff they do. Or surprise your stay-at-home spouse with a gushy card on a random Wednesday afternoon. (Remember, this is foreplay to us.)
Open up a night club in your living room. After putting the kids to bed, whip out some simple bar snacks, mix up a grown-up elixir, dim the lights and put on some swanky jazz tunes. Now take a quick look in the mirror and pull yourself together. It’s worth it. Then relax and enjoy some grown-up conversation in your homemade lounge.
Take a look back. Remember when you were dating, or what life was like pre-kids? Set a date to drag out the old photo albums, light some candles and reminisce about how you fell in love and then marvel at how far you’ve come.
