Nostalgia Week

It started with looking at photo albums of Dear Husband's childhood, kindly brought down by his parents when they visited this past weekend. 

Then came Halloween, and stories of different costumes we had as kids, and then going out and building memories with our own kids. 

Then it was me introducing the girls to "moonwalking" and MJ gliding through a live Motown performance of "Billie Jean" (I'm passing on "Thriller"--so not into the whole zombie thing).  (And since I can't help myself, "Beat It" led to a whole long discussion of Mr. Jackson's place in music history and American culture which covered slavery and MLK and Jim Crow laws and radio and records and the advent of rock-n-roll and R&B stations and teenagers.)

Then it was looking at slideshows together of our digital photos from when each of the kids were toddlers, which then suddenly morphed into dancing to and acting out "Mr. Roboto," "Don't Pay the Ferryman," "Holding Out for a Hero," "People Are People," and "The Sun Always Shines On TV."  (This time DH was being the DJ, with me leading the silliness and remembering fondly my sister Rebecca's K-Tel Hot Tracks record album. Which was, like, the best record ever.) 

This morning the girls asked for "the stories" of each of the dolls they slept with the night before, which were all mine as a girl and which I have given to them for birthday or Christmas presents.

And then the LitWits workshop today was on From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which just so happens to be one of my childhood favorites--and I even had the exact same well-worn copy on my shelf for Merry and Sunny to read. 

Then tonight we spread out an old blanket on the floor and watched The Love Bug, which is famous in my family's lore. (Oh nooo! Oh nooo!)  (And this is when it really pays off to have kids who are not so oversaturated with TV and desensitized to where such a wholesome movie is deemed lame--their shrieks of laughter at the over-the-top-silly climax was just too adorable.  Smiley included!)

You see, it's Nostalgia Week, which I dreamed up a few months back.  DH and I had so much fun thinking about the things we wanted to share with the kids that we remember fondly from our childhood--although, oddly enough, much of that centered on specific sugar cereals and Saturday morning cartoons.  (Yes, our Sat. morning is booked ; )  We waited until we had what seemed like a good week, and almost waited too long, since I wanted to do it before the holidays (and the sugar rush) started in earnest.  So, what with Halloween night, and other things going on the past two nights, we have had a slow start with our family fun--just the odd breakout of 80's music and telling stories of the past.  But tomorrow night is game night--and I have a feeling Park N Shop will be the choice game, since would you believe both DH and I grew up playing it?  (And most of you have probably never even heard of it!)

 Photo credit here--with a great description of the game!

Or maybe we should introduce the kids to Mille Bornes, which we also both played in our youth (and which would fit nicely following the children's enjoyment of Herbie's hijinks tonight):

Trust me--you want these cards.  Photo credit and game description here.

Whatever we end of doing the rest of the week, we will not plan it out too much, and just relax and enjoy one another, share bits of ourselves with our kids, and together build their own memories of family life.  The kids so far are so excited that we are going this special week, even if we have not done all that much.  I can tell this is a new family tradition in the making!