A walk in the Park

Last night our family had it's first ever movie night. Not that we've never sat down together and watched a movie. Last night was an 'official movie night'. I'm getting all nostalgic with the changing of the seasons and the holidays fast approaching so this is my attempt to start a new tradition. I think it's about time actually. My mother-in-law, who from here on out will be referred to as 'Nunie', made a big pot of stew and invited us over to eat some of it. Okay, you know me better than that. We invited ourselves over and I picked up some Subway to go with it. I brought along some pumpkin seeds for roasting, my new/old popcorn popper I got for a steal at Goodwill and Toy Story 3 (Thanks, Nana!)

After the meal, I started the pumpkin seeds and got the popcorn popper ready. My kids could not figure out what that contraption was that I was pouring popcorn into. I'm sure they were all wondering just when the microwave was going to do its part.

Popcorn, ready. Roasted pumpkin seeds, check. Snack for mommy, who is dieting, check. Then, an amazing thing happened. We all sat down together and watched a 2 hour movie. All of us. And no one left to do other things. At one point, I looked around the room and took a mental roll call of everyone present:

• Autie, who sat without moving the entire time. She really loves movies.
• Anna, who bit her tongue for most of the movie trying to keep from saying, "Oh this part's funny! Watch this!" She had already seen it.
• John, who was the only one to come and go. He had a project going on the front porch. Something about a rifle, a tree branch and duct tape. He did watch a good part of it, though.
• April, who stayed on the verge of tears for the duration. She is our child who, at 2, understood completely the plight of Rudolph and his exclusion from the reindeer games and cried, inconsolably for a half hour after seeing the movie.
• Elliott laughed at all the hidden adult jokes and had a look of disgust on his face when, halfway through the movie, he realized that he released his song Blue Dog a little too late.
• My father-in-law, Papa, who actually watched the whole thing and appeared to enjoy it. Even though it went a little past his 9:00 bedtime.
• Nunie, who really enjoyed it, but declared that she hated the ending. She thought all the toys should have gone to the attic. Someday I'll show you her attic and you'll understand.

And that leaves me. I happen to love a cleverly-written-by-adults-movie-for-kids. And I really enjoyed all the nostalgic toy references. But mostly, I enjoyed the view around me of all my family spending time together. In the same room. It doesn't happen that often and even if we were all watching a movie, we were together. Actually, it's all part of my master plan to get everyone to stick around when there's youth and baseball and soccer and theater and choir and this and that and the other. I've got lots of tricks up my sleeve for that.