Chocolate covered peaches, Coca-Cola, and a Date-iversary

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and The Coca-Cola Company. All opinions are mine alone. #ShareMemories #CollectiveBias

Happy Date-iversary #ShareMemories #ad

Music. It has such a powerful connection in our lives. As a recovering Band Geek, I really shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve known this since high school. Music is powerful. When you hear a few words or a couple of notes from a song and you’re instantly transported to another time, another place. It evokes strong memories. Some songs can make you cry. Others can make you dance like nobody’s watching. This Summer, Coca-Cola™ has tapped into the almost mystical connection we have with music by adding song lyrics to their bottles, inviting all of us to “Share a Coke and a Song.”

Share a Song Bottles #ShareMemories #ad

Twenty years ago this month, I was smitten. I’m still smitten, but everything was all brand-new in May of 1996. After an entire school year of pursuing her, I finally gathered up enough nerve to ask Christy out on a date. I don’t know what I was nervous about. For all practical purposes, we’d really been dating for the past several months. But nothing was ever “official.” So when the time came to actually ask her out, my heart skipped about three or four beats, my forehead gathered tiny drops of sweat, and my hands shook like they’d never shaken before. I was nervous.

Of course, she said yes. And so we went on our first official date twenty years ago this month. We didn’t have smartphones back then, so we don’t really have any photos to document the event. But I promise you, it was a memorable evening. We did the traditional date night: dinner and a movie. I honestly don’t remember what we ate, but I remember talking to Christy with such ease and comfort that it already felt like we’d known each other for years. It was an amazing dinner. Then we went to the movie. It was the animated one about a boy and a big-huge peach. It was…

well…

It was awful.

There. I said it. Neither one of us liked the movie. That disappointed Christy because she was a big fan of the book. The movie? Not so much. But it gave us an excuse to sit next to each other for 90 uninterrupted minutes. So it was totally worth it.

We didn’t want the night to end. So we decided there was really no reason for it to end yet. We drove to a nearby park. We sat on the banks of the Watauga River, in the shadow of a beautiful covered bridge, and talked the night away. We shared our hopes and our dreams. We fed the ducks. We talked about life and love and family and memories. We lingered there as long as we could. We didn’t want the night to end. It was magical.

A year and a half later, I brought Christy to that same exact spot beside the Covered Bridge and asked her to marry me.

Two Kids in Love #ShareMemories

Over the years, we’ve shared a lot of special moments together. Many of the thoughts and feelings from those memories are captured in some pretty great songs. That’s what’s so fun about the Coca-Cola “Share a Coke and a Song” bottles: they remind me of some pretty spectacular events that have taken place in my life.

Since this month marks a special milestone in our family history, I decided to head to Market District, a Giant Eagle store, grab a few bottles of specially marked Coca-Cola. I used them to help put together a fun date, a “Date-iversary Date in a Box,” if you will, as a fun little way to celebrate 20 years together.

What’s in our Date-iversary Date in a Box?

#ShareMemories in store photo at Market District

1.) 20 ounce bottles of Coca-Cola with “Share a Coke and a Song” lyrics.

I love visiting the Market District in Carmel. It’s a beautiful store and has a great selection of products. I could easily lose myself in this store as I’m checking out the great variety of food on their shelves.

After picking up some inspiring lyrics on my two Coca-Cola bottles, it was time to get to work. In a perfect world, this date would have taken place on the banks of the Watauga River in the shadow of the Covered Bridge in Elizabethton, Tennessee. But since school’s still in session and we’re in central Indiana, there’s no real way to make that happen. And because of our crazy schedules, staying up and talking all night long isn’t really in the cards, either. But that’s OK. We can relive and celebrate that night in a new and fun way.

Coca-Cola bottle - Happy Date-iversary #sharememories

2.) Chocolate covered peaches.

I love reminiscing about our first date. But I’ve got to tell you, I’m not watching that movie about the boy and the peach again. I’m pretty sure Christy feels the same way. But I have to make some kind of nod to the first movie we watched together. Right? So I sliced up some peaches and dipped them in dark chocolate.

That’s right. Dark chocolate covered peaches.

Chocolate Dipped Peaches Collage #ShareMemories

Of course, you can dip almost any fruit in chocolate if you’d like. It’s amazingly simple to do. Here’s a quick step-by-step guide:

  1. Simply melt some dark chocolate baking chocolate in a double-boiler or in the microwave.
  2. Dip your sliced fruit in the melted chocolate.
  3. Place the fruit on a plate lined with wax paper.
  4. Refrigerate the dipped fruit so the chocolate will harden.
  5. Keep them cool until you’re ready to serve!

3.) 20 Things I Love About You

I also put together a little book to give to Christy: 20 Things I Love About You. I debated long and hard about whether to create this book with a computer program or to make it by hand. I decided that handmade was the way to go. So I bought a simple photo album for 4×6 pictures, created a new cover, and filled the book with twenty different things that I love about my wife – everything from her eyes to her compassionate work with children with special needs. I used blank 4×6 notecards to fill the album with one thought per page. I also created my own cover on a blank 4×6 card.

20 Things #ShareMemories

4.) The Ultimate Date-iversary Playlist

Christy and I used to make mix-tapes for each other. That’s right. Mix-tapes. Not playlists or CDs. So having the Ultimate Date-iversary Playlist is a must. The Pretty Plus has some great tips on how to create the perfect playlist. And any time I’m not sure about a lyric to a song, I can always find out by searching Shazam. Music doesn’t just touch our ears, it touches our hearts. Having  the right playlist is an absolute must for a date like this one.

5.) 20 Questions

Since this date is in honor of our first date where we talked for hours and hours and hours, I it makes carve out some time on this date-iversary date to carve out some time to reminisce, laugh, and dream. It’s a time to look back, but also look ahead. So I created a list of 20 questions that we could answer together. Here’s the list of questions I used:

  1. What’s your favorite date that we’ve been on together?
  2. What’s your favorite movie that we’ve watched together?
  3. What’s the worst movie we’ve watched together?
  4. What’s the best dinner we’ve had together?
  5. If you had to re-live one day every day for the rest of your life, which would you choose?
  6. What’s the worst date we’ve been on together?
  7. If money were no object, what would you love to do together?
  8. Where is one place in the world you’d like to visit?
  9. Where would you like to revisit?
  10. If we could watch the sunset or sunrise from anywhere in the world, where would we go?
  11. What’s your favorite song from the last 20 years?
  12. What would be “our” song now, 20 years later?
  13. What do you remember about our first date?
  14. What do you remember about when we first kissed?
  15. What is your favorite memory from our wedding day?
  16. If you could go back in time, what would you tell yourself before our first date?
  17. What is one date you’ve always wanted to go on, but we’ve never gotten around to doing?
  18. What would make the perfect date?
  19. What does your dream house look like?
  20. What is the best dessert you’ve ever had?

I wrote each question on a 4×6 note card and shuffled them before placing them in the box.

Putting it all together.

Date-iversary Box #ShareMemories

I put all of these items in a box and went to our back porch. I set up a nice quiet spot for us to spend a few minutes and celebrate this milestone together. I have to continually remind myself that dates don’t have to be big and fancy all of the time. Sometimes it’s just as memorable to sit and talk and laugh and dream and connect.

Inspired.

The lyrics on the Coca-Cola “Share a Coke and a Song” bottles are inspiring people to share their memories. You can check out other people’s memories here. You can also find some great ideas for sharing your memories by visiting Giant Eagle’s social media channels. You can follow them here:

These “Share a Song” bottles inspired me to make another memory with my wife. What will they inspire YOU to do?

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Howdy. I'm Matt. My wife, Christy, and I have four kids and two dogs, I'm passionate about orphan care. I'm a die-hard fan of the Evansville Aces, the Indiana Hoosiers, and Star Wars. I'm trying to live life by the Todd family motto: "It behooves us to live!"
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