The holidays are a joyous time of the year, but they also tend to be very busy and often quite stressful. With all the gatherings, gift-shopping and other activities, it can seem like you’re not getting that much time alone with your guy—despite the fact that you may be spending a lot of time with him with friends and family around. Don’t let your relationship suffer from a lack of quality time together; check out our five ways to fit some couple-only time into the holiday rush.
1. Wake up together
We know how tempting it is to sleep in even when your partner needs to get up earlier than you do; but if the morning is the only boyfriend-time you’re going to get on a given day, then why not pull yourself out of bed once in a while, put on a fresh pot of coffee, and look over the paper together while he eats his cereal? At least you’ll have spent some quiet time together during the day (and you can also go back to bed after he leaves). Are you the one on an early schedule? Then discuss the possibility of him getting up with you.
2. Set aside some time for each other every night
With all the things to do during the holiday rush, it’s easy to just go about them on your own. This also makes it easy to rarely see your beau—unless you set aside some “together” time every night. For evenings when you have a party or an event planned, schedule your couple time in the afternoon before you start getting ready. The important thing is to stick to your plan!
Partying during the holidays is fun, but you shouldn’t accept every invitation that comes your way if you plan on relaxing and spending time with your partner. Aside from family gatherings (which you should definitely make an effort to attend), only accept invitations to parties with friends that you’re both equally enthused about. This will provide you with more free nights to spend together.
Even if it means a slight detour for one of you, do your part for the environment—and your relationship—by carpooling as often as you can. If you both need to run errands, then why not take one car and drop the other person off? It may seem slightly more time-efficient to just go your separate ways, but at least now, the time you would have spent driving or taking public transportation alone will be spent together.
And by “supper”, we mean: one of you cooks a meal (or you do it together!), and you both sit at the table to eat without any outside interruptions. Turn off the TV, leave your cell phones in another room, and only answer your land line if absolutely necessary. Too pressed for time to start cooking? Then consider ordering in, or eating out once in a while. The key is to pencil it into your calendar, and actually make a “date” of it so that it becomes a priority, just like gift-shopping, or preparing to have your whole family over.
