Friday, September 17, 2010

Friday night is movie night!

I thought I'd start blogging about some of our family traditions as I think of them.
Being Friday today, I thought I'd let you all know what you would find us (mostly) doing on a Friday night:)
I say "mostly" because sometimes we have our small group on Friday nights and occasionally we have the odd social event!

I reckon it's good to establish these traditions, I'm told it helps build in our kids a sense of security, belonging etc, connection within the family etc, not to mention great memories they can take with them in to their adult lives.
The only tradition I had growing up was church on Sundays (a good one I might add), because mostly my childhood was unpredictable - but that's another story that I won't bore you with tonight!

Anyway, a couple of years ago we started a "Friday night is movie night" tradition with Rebekah. We actually got the idea from a couple that used to be our pastors in the past and they did it with their kids.

When I say "movie" it's not necessarily always a "movie" but just something that we can watch together that's wholesome and entertaining as well.

We started off with seasons of "The Brady Bunch" that Ron had got as a Christmas gift one year. We carefully select which episodes we will watch together as the show changed as the kids got older (so I'm told - because I was not alive when this show was around - no just kidding - I was but I was in India and we didn't even own a TV at that stage let alone be watching "English" shows!)

Anyway, from "The Brady Bunch" we then watched some episodes of "Skippy" and now we are onto family movies, once again carefully selected. We usually only watch for 30 minutes, occasionally longer - if we've been able to get going earlier in the evening - and continue the next week where we left off previously.

We have watched "The sound of music", "Mary Poppins" etc to name a few.

I told you all sometime ago about that Lifeline book sale I went to - well, they had all these videos for $1 each! So I bought a whole bunch of them!

Tonight, we will be watching one of them - the movie "Babe". Do you guys remember that one? I watched it at the movies when it came out and loved it. I am hoping Rebekah does too! I remember there was a sequel that wasn't as good though, they usually aren't are they? :)

So around 7pm tonight if you were at our place, you'll find us snuggled up on the couch, popcorn in hand, maybe a lolly or two, watching "Babe".

Enjoy your weekend!

p.s. (we've also been known to pass on this tradition to other young families we know:))

12 comments:

Ganeida said...

Oh, Rosemary! How lovely. My girls & I do the chocolate & movies thing on cold wet days. Liddy like *chick flicks so it's often romantic comedy in this house. Star likes things with music & dance & Sound of Music is an absolute favourite. Very occassionaly the girls will indulge me & watch one of my strange & bizarre choices that leave them scratching their heads in perplexity but really; is there anything better curled up companionably together with a warm cat, plenty of chocolate & a good movie?

Clara said...

Family traditions are fun, yours sounds so cosy!! :)

We sometimes watch things together - we have the Little House on the Prairie series and sometimes watch a little of that, but more often we watch science DVDs - the kids have a HUGE interest in Science (and not just the DVDs - they love science books and just scientific info, too!). The ones from a Christian perspective are our favourite, but we have a limited range of them, so we sometimes watch others and explain to the children that there is no "millions of years ago" etc - which means they are being exposed to world-views they need to know are wrong at a young age too - not a bad thing, we think. :)
Would love to hear about your "unpredictable" childhood sometime! :)

Amanda said...

Your movie nights sound just wonderful! I remember all too well the Brady Bunch and Skippy lol. When my children were little, we bought the Babe video too.

Thanks for sharing one of your family traditions... they make for wonderful memories!

Finding Joy said...

Rosemary - 2 things:

1. I go every year to the Lifeline book fair in Canberra and I LOVE it - I pick up heaps of wonderful bargains and get quite exciting going!! I am going to the September fair on the 24th.

2. As the children were growing up we also had Friday night movies and it was a lot of fun. One thing I like to do was make up a tray of food - carrot sticks/celery sticks, dips, french fries(great in dips), different cold meats - basically nibblies and sit on the floor and have a picnic. It was lots of fun.

I love the Sound of Music.

I watch quite a few DVDs these days as there isn't anything on TV. For adults, I am currently watching Rosemary and Thyme which I really enjoy.

Amy said...

We love movie night! We don't get to do it every Friday, but it's fun. What are some of these "odd" social events you're going to? Sorry--couldn't resist! LOL

I love that you're watching "The Brady Bunch"! That makes me smile. And now I have the theme song in my head, so thanks for that! ;)

Another cute one we watched recently is "Stuart Little"--adorable movie if you wanna borrow it! :) "Night at the Museum" is fun, too.

Joyfulmum said...

Amanda - oh yes, I thought you'd remember the Brady Bunch (wink) :)

Jo - I know EXACTLY what you mean about the Life line book sales, I get so excited by them too:)

Amy - I didn't realise you guys did movie nights:) we did actually watch Stuart Little recently, thanks for the offer, will take you up on Night at the museum for sure!

Joyfulmum said...

and oh, Amy, I meant "odd" as in "occasional" but that would mean a double "occasional" in that sentence and either way it was a grammatical error on my part!!! I just didn't want to go back and correct it as I had to get off the computer!
I know you knew that but just wanted to clarify for my bloggers that socialising with you is definitely not "odd" :)

Rebecca said...

You've got a great tradition going there :)
For us, Friday night is restaurant night; we celebrate the end of the working week and the arrival of the weekend by going out to dinner together. Yes, even with little ones!

Val said...

If she's into horses at all, I would recommend a movie called Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken. It's a Disney movie for the early 1990s (not animated). It's about a girl (true story) who dove horses into giant pools of water during the 1930s at America's Coney Island. I think I first saw it when I was maybe 9 or 10.

Oh - love the Brady Bunch - just love it. I used to watch it when I would get home from school in the afternoon. My favorite episode, of course, has to be the one in which Davy Jones comes to sing at Marcia's dance. Needless to say, I would have given anything to be in her shoes!

Tea said...

I love this! My parents always made friday nights fun and special for us and I hope to do things like this with our son too! I love the movie, Babe. It is one of my absolute favorites!! I'm so glad found your blog tonight (through a comment you had left on Sparkling Adventures)! Hope you have a great movie night! :)

Joyfulmum said...

Rebecca - dinner nights sound great!
Val - we haven't got up to that episode you mentioned yet:)
Tea - Thanks for visiting and commenting. We watched half an hour of Babe again last night and it was great! I think I've "seen" you on other blogs too, I'll pop by at your place soon:)

Lauren said...

We like Hans Christian Andersen with Danny Kaye -- it has the ballet dancing as well as the singing and stories.

You're making beautiful memories with this tradition!