HAHA! So even though I built this damn website I apparently don’t know how to use it and accidentally PUBLISHED this post well before it was done baking. So if you saw this post in your feed reader before TODAY then just DISREGARD, and enjoy the real deal. With links!

I don’t know where it came from or why, but we recently instituted Family Movie Night. It’s now an institution, bearing all the privileges and exclusions therein granted, by ME, and also my family, who shall remain nameless at this time (Maggie & Eleanor) okay fine I named them. I guess you could say it started with the movie in the park a couple weeks ago, if you wanted to say that. I haven’t decided. But since then, we’ve fallen in love, and now we need about 52 movies a year to properly fund the venture (of love). And it’s an institution. Got it?

The first official Family Movie Night offering was Kung Fu Panda. Which was originally Netflix’d by this guy, being ME, for myself, but deemed appropriate for the family by this guy, MAGGIE, who I know, despite the almost constant kicking and punching and jumping portrayed by animated animals (including a snake, YEAH, a kung fu SNAKE) with expensive voices. And so it was thoroughly enjoyed by the family, but especially by Eleanor, who loves to see fat pandas really make it as kung fu masters. Did I mention Family Movie Night is a strictly at-home event? Because we’re not MILLIONAIRES, or even THOUSANDAIRES, or even could you maybe send us a couple fivers in the mail because it would REALLY help us get through this month thank you. Also, Friday night is the night, and you don’t take your 2.75-year-old to the movies on Friday night.

So it was awesome! We made popcorn, we ate popcorn, we turned the lights down, we watched the movie and Eleanor got to stay up WAY past her normal bedtime, and so did I. You guys, I was bouncing all over the place. Jack Black voices the fat panda hero, and I have to tell you, I am really so proud of Jack Black. I know that’s weird, because I didn’t raise him from a pup or even know him or anything, but I remember enjoying the antics of Tenacious D back in college, watching the HBO shows, and falling in love (<3). Fun facts you didn’t want to know about Jack Black: he’s a JEW, just like me! And he dropped out of UCLA, just like me! (just kidding I’m not some kinda of drop-out loser like Jack Black, summa cum laude baby, and making the bank to prove it STOP LAUGHING). And now Jack Black is leading man materials (sorry Kyle), putting talented voice actors out of work. So proud. My baby’s all grows up. This is where Maggie cocks her head and furrows her brow at me, but that’s okay because Brian understands (insider reference, or at least it would be if anyone but Brian were reading this right now HI BABY!). ANYWAYS so we watched that movie, and then Eleanor attempted to perform a flying roundhouse kick on Maggie, and BEDTIME!

Then of course Eleanor wanted to watch “the panda one” all weekend, so we did that, and then sent it back on Monday, and she cried. But then, before long, it was Friday again, and we had a new movie, Monsters vs. Aliens. Despite its just-as-expensive voice cast, this one was no panda. Jack Black wasn’t even IN IT. But this time around we did it even righter. We got pizza from Tomato Joe’s (who accidentally made our mushroom and olive pizza with cheddar, and did you know they will put cheddar on your pizza if you want it? and even if you don’t? and then they made a new one properly SANS cheddar and gave us the cheddar one too and if you’re wondering, it tastes like pizza with CHEDDAR on it), had popcorn and cookies, and you guys, I don’t even think it matters what the movie is, because FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT! The most exciting development of our lives, no REALLY!

My advice: you should be like us and watch movies at night too.