“A joyful heart is good medicine.” Proverbs 17:22

Cultivate Marriage with a Fun Anniversary Date!

Who wouldn’t want a fun, unique date?

Sometimes after we’ve been together for a very long time, it’s challenging to come up with fun new date ideas, especially if you’re working on a budget. Our typical date night has us sitting at home watching a little Netflix or playing a game, but our thirty-sixth wedding anniversary seemed to call for something a little more. Our desire is to splurge on a big trip to Scotland or Ireland, but we’re still working on some budgetary goals and we’re not quite there yet. It’s good to have something to look forward to, right?

Fun Date Idea: The Great Gift Card Scramble

It occurred to me that we had several unused gift cards. These were given to us for Christmas, and a few were leftover from when I was a Pre-K Assistant. After some brainstorming, we came up with the Gift Card Scramble. Here’s the gist of it:

1. Put all your gift cards into a bag.

2. Take turns drawing out a card.

3. Go where the card dictates, and use the card!

Here we are beginning our mystery date! But first, Joe took me to one of my favorite spots…

The Book Store!

Best of Books was hosting a story time and book signing by one of my favorite picture book authors, Tammi Sauer. As you can see, she puts on a riveting show! I was excited to get my Wordy Birdy book signed.

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After this excursion, we returned to our car to draw our first Gift Card…

Off we went to a local cafe, where we ate some lunch (after great confusion over our gift card. I don’t know what was going on, but we had a long wait while they checked something that they never explained to us. Odd.)

The food was good. We enjoyed our lunch, and then selected our next gift card, which took us to…

The Movies!

We saw The Post, which I found riveting on many levels and can’t stop discussing. Joe didn’t complain, but I think it wasn’t his favorite movie ever.

After the movie, we ran an errand at the Christian Book Store (two book stores in one day? Hot diggity!!). Then we drew what turned out to be our final gift card and went to…

Eat Ice Cream!

Yummy! Although we still had gift cards for two different coffee shops, we were absolutely stuffed and decided to head home and leave the remaining cards for another time. We also have money left on our movie card (an advantage to taking in a matinee).

Variations and Gift-Giving Ideas

I thought of some fun variations on this Gift Card Scramble theme.

Surprise Your Spouse

Of course, one of you could fill the bag with Gift Cards and surprise the other. Or, you could decide in advance that each of you would put two gift cards into the bag. That way, each of you would have some surprises.

In addition to gift cards (or instead), you could add other ideas to the bag written on pieces of cardboard or paper:

Take a walk.

Go for a picnic with the basket of food I hid in the back of the car.

Play a card game with the deck of cards in my pocket.

Go the the thrift store and purchase a game or puzzle to play together.

Surprise Your Child

This could be easily adapted for a Parent/Child or Grandparent/Child Date. Children would relish the fun of choosing their mystery destination from a bag.

Give a Gift Card Scramble as a Gift

Purchase a small gift bag, fill with gift cards and attach instructions. If the couple has children, include a coupon for babysitting.

Gift Card Suggestions

Coffee shop

Local restaurant

Ice cream shop

Movies

Play or live music

Bowling

Ice or roller skating

Zoo

Museum

Amusement Park

Arcade

Gift Card Scramble on a Budget

Taco Bell, Subway, Little Cesar’s Pizza

McDonald’s ice cream cone

Warehouse store for pretzel

7-11 for Slurpee

Tickets for high school play

Thrift store or used book store

Coupon for visit to library

Playground

Picnic

Walk around lake or other beautiful spot

A book to read aloud

Sledding

Build a snowman

Game to play

Ask around for tips about any free or low-cost events in your area. We sometimes have free concerts in the park during the summer, as well as numerous cultural festivals.

I hope you enjoyed my date idea. If you give it a try, I want to hear all about it. Also, do you have any fun or unique date ideas to share? If so, I want to hear all about it! Please comment.

Keep reading! At the bottom I’ve attached some of my most popular marriage posts and marriage book recommendations.

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Recommended Books

Cherish, Gary Thomas.

One of the best marriage books I’ve ever read. And I’ve read many!

Adorned, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth.

I haven’t read this yet, but I’ve never read an unhelpful book by this writer.

What’s It Like to be Married to Me? Linda Dillow

This book packs a wallop. Get ready to be convicted.

The Meaning of Marriage, Tim and Kathy Keller

I can’t wait to read this one!

Sweethearts for a Lifetime, Wayne and Carol Mack

Excellent book! I’m excited to re-read this.