A Family Movie

So, the other night we all sat down and Travis said, "Let's watch a family movie!" This sounded good to the rest of us so we cruised through the channels and soon found the clay-mation Christmas classic "Twas the Night Before Christmas." Bree was really enjoying it and we watched for awhile when we got a phone call. It was Grammy Dee-Dee calling. Of course, at one point in the conversation Bree talked to her Grammy. "Are you watching a Christmas movie?" I overheard her Grammy ask her. "Nopes," Bree corrected her, "A FAM-LY movie." It made me laugh since I had no idea such a simple little thing could have so much impact on our little 2 year old. But, it made me smile too...after all it's a tradition my family had as well. We had "Friday Fun Nights" with a family movie, a themed meal, and games. And, those are still some of my favorite memories of growing up...and so it goes on. I can only hope those will be the times Brianna looks back on with as much fondness as I do....

But, then again maybe not since I think I might have permanantly ruined family movie night for Bree. After the big succes the other night we sat down again last night to snuggle up and watch "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer." I remember watching it as a kid and thinking it was great. Yes, I remembered that there were a few scenes with the abdominable snow monster but I didn't think they were too bad. I mean, Bree has watched movies with slightly scary stuff before and done fine with a little parental reassurance. Well, not so this time around. I had no idea that Rudolph is the 2 year old equivalent of a terrifying slasher flick. After a few minutes of the abominable snow man scene, (the one where he's acting like he might eat Rudolph...well okay on second thought that's pretty creepy and gross), Brianna was so horrified that she actually turned the TV off, ran into her room and insisted that she needed to go to bed immediately. She said, "I need to get under my blanket with Bear and be safe!" "Right now?" we asked her. She's NEVER just wanted to go straight to bed. We even tried to convince her to give the movie another try just so she would see that the monster is friendly in the end. But, if we even so much as made a move to take her back into the living room she was freaking out, major meltdown. So, in the shortest bedtime routine ever in the history of Bree we put her to bed where she was asleep in record time as well. I guess it's a good thing she feels so safe and secure in her bed. I did feel a little bad though that I'd let her watch such an apparently scary movie that freaked her little self out so much. Oh well I figured, she fell right asleep so she must not have been too traumatized.

It wasn't until the next morning that I realized just how scary she thought the abominable snow monster was though. See, it's our morning custom (bad habit that it may be) to turn the TV on right away in the mornings. It gives Travis and I a chance to drink our morning caffeine dose in peace and actually wake up. But, this morning, after last night's scary Christmas horror flick, when we went to turn the TV on Bree just screamed and ran back into her room. "I don't want to watch TV! I just want to stay in my room!" she told us. I was confounded. This is a kid who wouldn't turn down watching TV if she thought she'd get a puppy instead. "But, Mickey Mouse and Dora are gonna be on?!" I stammered. "Mickey Mouse?" she said, "Well okay. But no fam-ly show!" Great...just great. Not only have I ruined the family movie tradition but here I was actually trying to CONVINCE my kid to watch TV. Not my best few parenting days I have to say. Well, guess I'll try again tomorrow.