If there is one question worse than the ever-famous “What do you want to eat for dinner?” it is the “What should we do for date night?” Hubby and I banter back and forth trying to make the other person decide on what to do for date night until one of us gives in and picks something. Recently, Hubby and I had the following convo:

Hubby: “It’s date night. What do you want to do?” 

Me: “I don’t know. What do you want to do?”

Hubby: “Hmm…”

Me: “Well, why don’t you think about it? I am going to run to Dollar Tree as I want to pick up some stuff for Bella’s care package.” (Bella is our daughter away at college, and I was in the process of putting together a box of silly odds and ends and treats to send to her to remind her of HOME and how much she is missed.)

Hubby: “I’ll go with you! That can be our date!”

Me: “Going to the dollar store? You hate going to places like that, and I need to shop around because I really don’t know what I want to get or what treasures we can find.”

Hubby: “I want to go. Besides, I don’t really care where we go or what we do. I just like spending time with you!” (Yes, he scored some major brownie points with that answer!)

The whole convo got me thinking. Can running an errand together be considered a date? The whole reason why Hubby and I started our date nights was to make sure we carved out time to be together, relax, and LAUGH … basically enjoy each other’s company. But how would we do that when I was on a mission to buy stuff for my daughter and Hubby really doesn’t like shopping with me when I am in that mode? And that was when I got the idea to do something I used to do with my kids when they were little and I needed to shop and get stuff done without them whining and complaining. I would make it into a game. Games make everything better! I wasn’t sure if this would work, but heck, it was worth a try.

I went online and found a cool, free site where you can generate your own bingo cards: https://bingobaker.com/. Just enter your bingo card title, choose a size, and type your words into the squares. I had so much fun thinking of stuff and people we might see at the store and filling out the boxes with them. Then, I did a simple scramble, and voila, I had bingo cards ready to print. When I showed Hubby the cards, he got just as excited as my kids used to get! (It was really cute!)

Bingo cards and umbrellas in hand, we dodged raindrops and headed to the Vista Palms Dollar Tree on Narcoossee Road. It was a Saturday afternoon, so it was busy, which made it even more fun to play our bingo game. While I had printed out two cards to make it a competition, we decided to do it together. Besides, that way I could also shop. (I may have been on a date, but I was still a mom on a mission!) 

I am happy to report that it actually was a pretty fun time. We kept nudging each other like co-conspirators and pointing out things so we could “X” it off. We talked about candy from our childhood, stared at people’s feet to see who might be wearing flip flops, and got a strange look from the pregnant lady when she saw how excited we were to see her. At one point, we even considered tripping a kid so we could mark off the “crying child” square. Don’t worry, we didn’t! But the fact that we both had the idea made us laugh so hard I snorted! It took us half an hour to get a BINGO, and by then, we had also filled our cart with all sorts of fun things for our daughter’s care package that we BOTH picked out. 

Hubby and I discovered that an errand turned into a game makes for a great date. We are already starting to brainstorm what else we could do. Publix Pictionary, Home Depot Hide and Seek, Target Tag …