Like many parents of special needs children, we definitely don’t take enough time for ourselves.

I’ve talked before about our issues with finding a babysitter – more the issue of our finding someone we’re comfortable perhaps more than actually finding time to go out.  (Though this is the season where the latter is a problem too.)  Setting that aside, we do manage to get out now and again, thanks to the very generous donation of my mother-in-law’s time to watch the kids.

And of course, this also is setting aside that both of us have nights out.  I have my curling, the wife has choir, and there are other things here and there… but this is about couple-time.

So on Friday night, the wife and I went to my company’s annual holiday party.

The company holiday party is a very done-up thing every year, something that almost everyone looks forward to.  There’s never any real idea as to what we’re going to find when we get there, save perhaps for general sketches of the theme.  We’ve had “Christmas in Central Park” one year, the circus another… and this year was Mardi Gras.  (Yes, we’re aware that Mardi Gras is really in February.)  It’s an open-bar, buffet treat, with live music, entertainment wandering about and everyone showing up just to mingle.

It’s also perhaps the one time a year – besides synagogue – that my wife gets me in a suit without a problem.

But going to the party also reminds us of how much we miss going out.  Not just to the theater or the occasional dinner… but really at all.  It’s been ages since we’ve been invited to an adult party at friends’ houses, much less gone to one.  Most of the times where we’ve had the chance to go out are family-style things – the occasional birthday party, or a mingled playdate, or the Super Bowl – where we’re taking the kids along.  And we’re not alone in that, I know.

I think that’s perhaps something we need to work on in the coming year – not just finding time for us to go do couple-things, but to see if we can’t drag others out as well.  Something has to give.