At-Home Christmas Date Night!

She Said:

Well, no doubt you've noticed that it's that time of year again -- Christmas!!! This is bar-none, hands-down, no doubt my absolute favourite time of year. There are no words to describe the excitement I have for the Christmas season. It starts around June October-ish, and builds and builds into the climactic moment of Christmas morning bliss.

Actually, I think i prefer the build up to Christmas more than the actual day: decorating the house, trimming the tree, shopping in over-heated and over-crowded shops, the smell of mulled wine on the hob, baking bad-for-you foods, and of course - terrible Christmas Movies on television.

It wouldn't be Christmas at the Robertson household without a Christmas-themed Date Night -- we've actually had about three, but who's counting???

Itineraries for an at-home Christmas themed Date Nights can be as random as you want! That's the best part.

Whether it's decorating Christmas cookies together, wrapping presents together in front of the fire, putting lights up on the house, decorating the tree, or simply watching Christmas movies - celebrating in your own way is what makes this Date Night great.

It's a great time of year to simply celebrate each other, and to embrace coziness - so take advantage!

For Brett and me, it's easy. Food, spiced wine, and nostalgic movies. Done.

Brett's been glued to the food channel recently (lucky me and the extra 10 lbs I've gained this month!) and was inspired to make a Christmas ham, so our first to-do this Date Night was a trip to the market to pick up the meat, as well as fixin's for mamma's mulled wine! For the recipe we follow every year - a FOOL PROOF mix for the world's best Mulled wine - is courtesy of Jamie Oliver and can be found here.

The ham recipe we went for was courtesy our new favourite, Nigella. This recipe can be found here.
We got home and Brett started in on the ham. (We very quickly realised our apartment didn't have a pan to fit the ham, so off toASDA we went to snag a bigger one - just a quick 30minute Date Night Detour!). Back in the kitchen, ham boiling away like a happy little piggy, I started in on the Mulled Wine and some homemade mushroom and spinach tarts.

The smells coming from the kitchen were extraordinary.

While we waited for our feast to finish, we curled up on the couch in front of the fire with an array of classic Christmas movies at our disposal - which included Home Alone, Elf, and of course, A Christmas Story.

The ham was finally done and cooked to perfection, so we dug in.

Happy Birthday Jesus, this ham was amazing.

For more great Christmas-inspired recipes, check out this link! Food Network UK is doing their countdown to Christmas, and we're obsessed. Join us, won't you?

Happy Christmas, all!

Looking for some local fun to be had this Christmas?

Here is some inspiration!

• Date Night in with an all-time favourite Christmas Movie Marathon! (Die Hard will win you extra points with your gentleman)
• Christmas Cookie Decorating (perhaps show up in this little number to score even MORE points!)
• Visit a local Christmas Market for some spiced wine, shaved meat, and beers! Here is a list of local markets happening near you now! [List of local Christmas Markets]
• Drive and look at the Christmas Lights! Some neighborhoods are better than others...
• Take your sweetie to see the Nutcracker in Bournemouth
• Hit up a local Christmas Tree Festival!
• Go see A Christmas Carol at Poole's Lighthouse Theatre
• Or, head over to London where there are limitless ways to celebrate Christmas with your sweetie, including Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland. I've heard it's AMAZING, and we're heading out this weekend to check it out for ourselves!

Have other GREAT Christmas Date Night ideas? Let us know! We'd love to add your event to the list.

A Letter from Brett

He Said:

Right, we’ve gone and buggered off to our eternal mother - Old Blighty!
As you know, I’ve been transferred with work so Mandy and I have packed up the Seattle flat, shipped the cats off to the in-laws and made the big journey across the Atlantic to sunny Bournemouth, Dorset, England.
So what's with Date Night I hear you chatter. Well, even in the land of the perpetual tea break, Mandy and I are still busy people with crazy schedules. Date Night marches on more important than ever! But what does Date Night look like in Europe??
Will this blog turn into a slag-fest with me constantly moaning about crappy service? Will Mandy think every date spot is the greatest thing since sliced bread as it’s all so foreign to her? Will I maintain my hatred for chainy’s? Do English people even want to read about the dating habits of a yank and a JAFA (Just another fu$king Australian)? Do English people even date???
We don’t know, but we’re pumped up to find out.
Stay tuned to Date Night Dorset style!

Cheers,
Brett

We're baaaaack!

Hello, lovely readers!

Well, first I must apologise for the lack in attention to our blog as of late. There really is no excuse for this type of behaviour - ALTHOUGH, I think Brett and I may have a pretty valid one:

WE'VE MOVED TO THE UK!

Many of you already know this, but for those of you who don't, Brett was transferred for work and I decided to go with him (he IS my husband, after all) ... We moved mid-July, and have already had about 10 Date Nights that we can't wait to share with you!

That said, Date Night didn't end just because we moved across the pond. We plan to keep our Date Nights going, and of course our blog posts to coincide.

Posts will include everything from fun little hole-in-the wall restaurants we find, weekends away to haunted castles, hikes through old cobblestoned towns, visits to famous birthplaces, burial places, ghost tours, festivals - we are overwhelmed already with the amount of things we want to do and see while here - and that's only England! We plan also to blog about our adventures to neighbouring countries - we hope to have many adventures on that front as well!

So please bear with us as we gain our bearings in our new home. Posting will begin soon, and we hope you will join us on what we hope to be our greatest Date Nights ever!

(ps, i wrote this post in a British Accent! Can you tell??)

Brett and Mandy at the birthplace of Shakespeare: Stratford Upon Avon