Since my husband and I live in Spain, in December 2020, we found ourselves with two weeks of holiday vacations and no way to leave our house. Great.
The first few days were awesome. We read books, binge-watched Netflix, and called family and friends. Then we started missing work. Did we ever think it would be a good idea to spend our vacation days during the pandemic?
Boredom clawed its way into our relationship.
My husband — a brilliant, brilliant man — gifted me a brilliant book. In Pasatiempos con mucho Amor (the rough translation would be: hobbies with a lot of love), there are dozens of activities for couples.
As a lover of games, quizzes, and everything in between, I tried whatever caught my attention. And I can truly say that this tiny, tiny book helped my marriage thrive in those two weird vacation weeks.
Here are my favorite 4. I hope they help you break your routine, have fun, and grow closer to your significant other.
1. Love Letters: Be an old-fashioned romantic.
In our modern era of WhatsApp texts and emojis, a surefire way to become a consummate romantic is to write a love letter. This is the premise behind the game.
To play, you and your partner only need a pen, paper, and to remove the idea that writing love letters is silly (my husband knows why I’m writing this).
The rest is easy. Establish a deadline (you can start with five minutes and then lengthen it) and write a handwritten letter to the other. Afterward, exchange your masterpieces and enjoy reading your partner’s words.
In my case, though I have to admit I had trouble deciphering my husband’s words, I felt giddy by the time we finished. What can I say? I felt like the protagonist of a Jane Austen book.
Bonus idea: To get into the game, sometimes it helps if you define a topic. For example: 5 reasons why I love you. It will get the creative juices flowing. Moreover, if you feel extra playful, consider hiding the letter so it’s surprising as well as romantic.
2. Like, Dislike: How well do you know each other?
This game has three main benefits: testing your knowledge of each other, encouraging compliments, and helping you discuss what you dislike of the other in a loving way.
The rules are simple. Each one must write a list of five things they like and five things they dislike about the other. Then you take turns to guess what the other person wrote on their lists.
Be warned, though. This game will probably lead to deep conversations about your relationship. Best if you create an environment that invites openness with relaxing music, wine, and chocolate (chocolate always makes things better).
Bonus idea: Offer an enticing reward if any one of you fully guesses at least one of the lists. Or you could do the opposite and create a funny punishment (like doing a weird dance or recording a bad joke and sending it to friends) when their guesses are too far off.
3. Kiss Suprise: There’s no such thing as too many kisses.
The problem with routines is that they rob you of magical moments with your partner, like running to greet them when they arrive at home, tickling them when they least expect it, or just holding each other.
The same applies to kisses. A routine didn’t rob them from my relationship, but it made them robotic. Kiss hello. Kiss goodbye. Done.
That’s the beauty of this game. It forces you to be mindful. It makes every kiss magical again — or at least funny.
To play, you only need each other. Within a defined deadline (at least a day), you must kiss each other ten times. The twist here is that the kisses must be surprising. If the other person sees you coming and says “kiss” out loud, that kiss won’t count.
Bonus idea: If you’re competitive, consider giving a reward to the person who gives the ten surprise kisses first.
4. Compliment Challenge: a blushing competition.
This game is perfect for competitive couples because there’s a clear winner. Yet at the same time, the loser still gets something out of it: lots of compliments and the pleasure of seeing their significant other blush.
To play, you and your partner must look into each other’s eyes for as long as possible. Meanwhile, you must each take turns to say gushy things. For example: I love your eyes, I love it when you purr like a cat (just kidding!), or I admire you because you always finish what you start.
Exaggerate, be silly, be funny — do anything to get your partner to blush and look away. The winner is the one who maintains eye contact the longest.
Still, even if you lose, you will definitely leave feeling playful and with your ego satisfied.
Bonus idea: If you don’t like to compete against your partner at all, compete with them. Make it so that both of you win if you maintain eye contact for a specific length of time. In other words, a team effort.
Final Thoughts
The pandemic has been hard on us all, wrecking our financial stability, messing with our mental sanity, and challenging our relationships. And though games can’t fix the first two problems, they have definitely helped me with the third.
Love games — the four in this article or whichever you like — gift us an instant to forget the troubles our world is facing. More importantly, they help us remember what we love about each other.
So the next time you find yourself bored to death in your relationship, why not exchange love letters or try to guess what they like and dislike about you or shower them with surprise kisses or gushy compliments?
If there’s something I’ve learned during this pandemic is that love makes even the dullest days seem magical.
—
This post was previously published on Medium.
***
If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project and want a deeper connection with our community, please join us as a Premium Member today.
Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS. Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo credit: Jude Beck on Unsplash