Romping About with Romance

When was the last time you played with your spouse? I mean really played with him or her with laughter and teasing. Life and love does not have to be serious all of the time. If it is, you will have a dull life and a joyless marriage. You may not think about yourself as playful, but it's time that you did. Play with your wife. Play with your husband. Make jokes about yourself and each other (silly jokes, not hurtful ones). Play water tag with the sprayer at the kitchen sink. Take a piece of masking tape and write a silly word like "dork" on it. Sneak up behind your spouse, slap the tape on his or her arm and say, "Tag! You're it!" There's nothing wrong with having some childish fun with your spouse. The best part might just be the look on your spouse's face when you unexpectedly make the first move! Make your romantic life with your spouse a weekly game. Do you remember the old board game spinning wheels? If you can find one, remove the spinner from a board game you no longer use. Cover the original instructions on the wheel with paper and separate it equally into twelve sections. Fill in the sections with a romantic activity and you and your spouse can take turns spinning the wheel each day or once a week. Most communities hold a variety of carnivals and festivals throughout the year. Even those who live in climates that change drastically from warm summers to cold and snowy winters continue to have summer, harvest, winter and spring festivals. Take your spouse to any or all of them! Make sure you eat some of the food there, play some games, try and win a prize, ride the rides if there are any and buy your love a trinket to remember the day by. Take a day to spend at the mall, but you won't be spending the entire day with each other. You and your spouse each get a specific amount of money (about ten dollars- no more than twenty) to spend while you're there. You both agree to shop for a certain amount of time and return to the same place you started. Here's where it becomes romantic- you are only allowed to buy trinkets for each other while you shop. Some couples make up their own shopping theme and they can only buy items that fit that theme. For example, if you are close to a holiday like Christmas, only shop for Christmas related items. Maybe you both need a good laugh and you can only shop for gag gifts. Use your creative side to make a day out 'together' fun! If you really want to have fun, you can enjoy dressing up for each other. Not the way you dress up to go out to dinner, but the way you used to dress up to go out on Halloween! Visit a local costume shop and rent what you both have chose for the other. Make a night of it- at home!