PPP178: Mom2Mom Family Mystery Movie Night

03Feb 2020 by Shelly Davis

Today’s episode is more about parenting and less about piano. Since parenting is better when you and your child have a closer relationship and share things together, I think this episode still fits in with my goal of helping you make the most of piano lessons.

We’ve reinstated something fun in our family that I thought you might enjoy too. That is Family Mystery Movie Night.

Listen to the full episode here

The “mystery” isn’t necessarily the genre of the movie, though it could be if that’s something your family enjoys. The mystery is exactly what the feature presentation will be.

We used to this when my kids were younger and just got out of the habit over time. Since I’ve only got a few more years with Tracy being home, I want to take advantage of the time to do this family activity more, with a different selection of movies, since she’s older.

Why should you consider a family movie night?

I hope your family is still the type that sits down at the dinner table (with the television off) and enjoys sharing a meal and talking about your day together. More likely than not, I’m afraid that’s not the case. If I am to believe the stereotypes, your meals are eaten on the go as you and your kids dash from one activity to the next. Maybe you’ve had the forethought to pack a healthy meal but chances are you’re hitting the drive-through more than you’d like to admit.

For my family, my schedule has me working until 6:30 or 7:00 each evening. Such is the life of a piano teacher. When I get off work, I tend to grab the easiest, least interesting thing to eat. I need to pause here and acknowledge that Duane prepares most of our evening meals. He is a great cook who likes to try new recipes and makes my life much more sane by taking care of meal prep. But this week, even has been off his game. Because we’re not thinking ahead, we’re not making the best choices and our evening meal is just an afterthought.

In addition to my later working hours, we very often are eating separate meals. Tracy has Celiac Disease and requires a gluten-free diet. My husband, Duane, and I are often trying one meal plan or another – he might be trying the carnivore diet when I’d like to include more veggies with my meal. So a sit down, family meal is a rare occurrence for us.

The reality is that unless it’s a special occasion or specifically planned out, we don’t really put much thought into our evening meal. Because of that, and because I want to contribute more to our family’s meal planning and preparation, I’ve re-instituted Family Mystery Movie Night.

Planning your family movie night is as open and diverse as your family.

At the beginning of this year, I knew I wanted to start doing our family movie night again. I included it on my 20 for 2020 list that I learned from Gretchen Rubin. I found an article on Bustle.com that listed movies that match a certain event or date on the calendar. I’ll share more about what I found and what movies we’re watching this year in the next segment. For now, I’ll tell you about February’s movie.

I chose Bill Murray’s “Groundhog Day.” I chose it for several reasons but here are a few:

1. Well, it’s groundhog day! (Though we’re watching on February 1 because the Big Game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers is February 2. Did you know that I live in the same hometown as Patrick Mahomes?? He was in the class right between my daughter, Keri, and my son, Austin. We’re enjoying a little celebrity in our town these days. He was also in one of my elementary music classes but I’m sure he doesn’t remember me at all.)

2. Groundhog Day was released in 1993 and I’m introducing my 17 year old to the movies I enjoyed when I was younger. She wouldn’t choose to watch this one on her own so this is a great way to get her out of her comfortable rut.

3. Duane is a big fan of Bill Murray so he will be more likely to watch with us.

4. Finally, I was reading “Mindset” by Carol Dweck and she used this movie as an example of a person moving from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. I plan on infusing a few teaching moments as we watch the movie together.

So, I’ve chosen the movie, now for the menu.

Feel free to take massive creative license with your menu choices. When our oldest son was younger, he was extremely into cowboys and rodeos. To get him to eat beans, we called them “cowboy beans” like they cooked out on the trail. We call smoked sausage “snake” to this day. His four year old mind thought eating snake was cool. Our older minds love the nostalgia now.

For “Groundhog Day” I’m serving breakfast food. Since Bill Murray wakes up every morning and heads to the local diner for breakfast, it only makes sense. We’re having

Bacon and Eggs – I haven’t thought of a clever name for them. Tracy loves bacon but isn’t interested in eggs. Maybe I can convince her to give them a try.

Pancakes – I will call the PENNcakes because Punxsutawney Phil is in Pennsylvania. Tracy already knows how to make gluten free pancakes so I will ask her to help me prepare dinner. Another great life skill and time spent together.

Orange Juice – I will call it Sonny Delight in reference to the Sonny and Cher song, “I Got You Babe” that reminds Bill Murray’s character, Phil, that he is still stuck in the same loop.

Angel Food Cake – Remember the scene where Phil crams an entire slice of cake in his mouth?!? I’m probably not going to get actual Angel Food Cake because I doubt I can find a gluten free ready-made cake and I’m not inclined to try to make one. I’ll swing by Nothing Bundt Cakes and get their gluten free blundtlet.

Movie Suggestions

Here are some movies I’m planning for the rest of 2020. Remember, my goal is to introduce Tracy to movies from the past 10-20 years that she was too young to enjoy or relate to.

January – Rocky I (our menu was Italian Stallion spaghetti, Black eye peas, fruit punch, and Jell-YO for dessert)

March – March 2 is Texas Independence Day so we will watch a movie about the Alamo. I don’t know if it will be the old John Wayne movie or the newer Billy Bob Thornton version.

March 24 is the day The Breakfast Club met for detention. Serve breakfast foods or teenager junk food.

May – With May the 4th, you just have to watch a Star Wars movie!

July – watch any patriotic movie on the 4th.

July 8th is connected with Jaws but I think I’ll be skipping that one!

September – The 19th is talk like a pirate day so I think we’ll be watching something from Pirates of the Caribbean.

November 1 – I’m planning to watch E.T. and serve Reese’s Pieces for dessert.

February – You already know we’re watching Groundhog Day and eating breakfast.

April – two options here. April 15 is when the Titanic sank so we might watch that while we eat food similar to what they were eating in the first class dining scene.

April 25 is the date mentioned as the “perfect date” in Miss Congeniality.

June – Apparently June 5th is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

August – I’m thinking about watching August Rush or Grease. Grease would be easy to serve diner food, including a milk shake.

October – On the 21st, we’re watching Back to the Future. Should we serve food from the future or from the past?

December – any Christmas movie will work well or you might decide to skip December since it is so full of other family activities.

You can make an event out of any movie that your family will enjoy. Make menu clues from actual food that is shown in the film or be creative with punny names to make the food hints match the movie.

When the kids were younger, some of our movie nights were “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” – the menu was easy on that one, “Pirates of the Caribbean” – I served chicken nuggets but called them gold doubloons, “Finding Nemo” – of course, goldfish was somewhere on the menu (this was before we learned about Tracy’s Celiac Disease).

The whole point is to be intentional about nurturing your relationship with your children. Have fun and let me know what movies and menus you create.

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