Shindiglet: Family Movie Night & Bedtime Moments

Shindiglet - Like a grand shindig, only a much smaller to-do. There are times, when even a small group of people getting together creates an occasion for celebrating with a theme. And if it is within my power, I always try to make that happen.

A family movie night, for me, is such an occasion.

On weekends, my little family unit (the four of us) likes to kick back and relax and enjoy some family entertainment on the ol' boob tube. Lately, we've been watching the Pink Panther cartoons that I remember watching as a kid. I'm loving the fact that my kids think they are hilarious! My memories take me back to when I was young and I went with my family to the drive in. Before the movie started, we would be treated with a cartoon, sort of like an appetizer. All of us kids (there were always so many of us in one car... never failed!) used to guess which cartoon would be shown. Would it be Tom & Jerry or The Pink Panther? And which exact one would it be? The beach episode of Tom & Jerry where Tom tries to impress that sleek white girl cat? The Pink Panther episode where PP wants everything painted pink when the man is obviously a fan of the color blue? The occasional Ant & the Aardvark? Ahhh, those summertime moments of anticipation! So fast-forward many... ahem!... a few years later, and I get to see my kids rehashing the simple plot lines that make the Pink Panther so timeless.

All of this reminiscing has gotten me all nostalgic. In my ritualistic, daily blog hopping earlier this summer I landed on a contest over at wantnot.net that focused on special bedtime moments between parents and children. I guess that sentimental mood back then got me thinking about special bedtime moments, and how our children just grow up so darn fast (second grade already!!). It hit me that these are the days my children will remember when they're my age, and hopefully they'll look fondly upon them. I want to give my kids those Pink Panther memories! I want them to drift off to sleep in a home where they have fun and bond over family time! Goshdarnit, I want tons and tons of special bedtime moments!

Did I mention that I won that contest over at wantnot.net? No? Welllllllllllllllllllllll... let me tell you all about it! Mir, the very pretty blogger over yonder had partnered with GoodNites to sponsor this contest. All I had to do to enter was to write about a special bedtime moment I had experienced. I recalled the bedtime story "Love You Forever" and how it always makes me emotional when I read it. You can get the details at wantnot.net and spare me the blubbering from rehashing it now. :) I cannot tell you how excited I was to learn that I had won! When the prize arrived in the mail, I was like a kid at Christmas, going through all of that loot! Included was a beautiful LL Bean tote bag, a nice, warm, fuzzy throw blanket, two Moleskine journals, a $50 gift card for Borders, and a $100 pajamagram.com gift certificate. Wowee!! Family movie night just got cozier! To top it all off, wantnot.net won a sub-contest with GoodNites as the blogger who generated the most entries to the GoodNites website's Special Bedtime Moments contest. With that win, Mir earned $1,000 worth of bedtime books that she had donated to her local county library system's outreach program. Having even the tiniest part of getting books into the hands of people who can appreciate them is just plain delightful.

To bring us back full circle, I'm currently planning a shindiglet for an upcoming family movie night. With a subtle nod to wantnot.net and GoodNites... I think we'll watch 'Bedtime Stories.'