The care home provider Gracewell are currently running a campaign to highlight the many ways that each generation can stay in contact and socialise together. Movie nights are a great way to help families stay in touch and enjoy something fun together and Gracewell run them regularly for their residents, actively encouraging their relatives and loved ones to attend too. N and I were asked to support the campaign by sharing how we put on our own movie night at home.
The reality is that although N and I spend lots of time together, we’re often busy working on our laptops or at least one of us has our head buried in some form of social media, so on movie night phones are not allowed. For two hours we escape into the film completely free from distractions and give it, and each other, our undivided attention.
At the cinema we usually avoid the snack counter and (confession time!) just sneak in a bag of sweeties from home. I mean who wants to pay £4 for a bag of Minstrelz?! However at home we’ve got free reign to put on whatever snacks and drinks we like and for much less money, so we like to go to town and have a bit of fun with it. I think this time around we went slightly overboard as once we’d got everything ready we realised we had enough food to feed a small family, but we didn’t let that stop us getting stuck in!
To start with, we cooked up some hotdogs with lashings of ketchup and mustard and made a big bowl of cheesy nachos to share. These are the easiest thing in the world to get ready. You just put a layer of nachos in a microwave proof dish, add a layer of salsa, then repeat with a few more layers, before adding grated cheese on top. Microwave for 2 minutes and you have yourself a party! We bought a Nacho Kit from the supermarket to make things even easier.
Popcorn always goes down a treat with us and we had a bag of our favourite flavour Toffee Apple and Cinnamon from Joe and Seph’s, as well as some sweeties for our own version of pic ‘n mix.
Even though it was pretty cold outside it was cosy in our house so I served up iced drinks to keep that authentic cinema feel going. I avoided going as far as using paper cups as drinks taste SO much better from a glass…sometimes home comforts are better after all!
I love movie night as much for the time afterwards as watching the film itself. We lay on the sofa feeling completely stuffed and dissected all the key scenes from the film, quoting our favourite lines and planning what to watch next. And really that’s what it’s all about – just finding a bit of time to relax, be together and enjoy each other’s company…without worrying about whether my latest Instagram has got any likes yet!
Thanks Gracewell for helping remind us of how important it is to spend proper time together and for helping us to make it happen!
How do you spend time with your loved ones? Do you enjoy movie nights at home?
