Our entire family felt pretty well wiped out this evening. The combination of getting dark early, cloudy skies all day, snow flying in the evening, and the majority of the week behind us put each of us into movie mode. This doesn’t happen often in our house, we usually fire up games or are active doing other things. As luck would have it all four of us were in sync and we took advantage of it.

There’s a list of movies Becky and I want to watch with the boys. We started mentally making it a while back and haven’t mad a ton of progress on it. First and foremost on the list was The Shawshank Redemption, but we wanted to make sure they were both old enough for the adult concepts in it. We decided that tonight was the night and fired it up.

I feel like even trying to explain why I’m thankful for the movie wouldn’t even come close to doing it justice. Any words I type won’t fit the magnitude of the movie. Quick note – if you haven’t watched it yet I’ll do my best to leave out spoilers, but let’s face it. Seriously, if you haven’t watched it by now, stop reading and turn it on.

LOL – I’ve seriously now started typing a new paragraph for the 6th time! None of them quite feel right, so maybe I’ll try this instead…

There are more life lessons contained in The Shawshank Redemption than I can count. There are specific scenes that cause my eyes to well up even before they start (Andy sitting on the roof smiling as everyone else drinks a beer as he declines). There is quote after quote after quote that my friends and family still share with each other. There are so many memories I have of watching this with friends throughout the past 25 years – it seems to be one of those few movies that truly transcends all groups of friends. The movie is about as perfect of a story as one could ever hope to enjoy.

The memories that come to mind when I watch it each time is mind blowing. In watching it with the boys I’ve now got another memory to add to the list when I watch it. I can’t even begin to track how many different memories I had tonight as I watched, but I know my heart is full.

Andy Dufresne, Red, & the rest of the Shawshank gang – thank you for another evening of wonderful memories, stirred emotions, and a full heart. What a wonderful way to wrap up an evening with my family.

Thanks!!!