The Griswolds...

Until a few days ago we had never seen 'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation'.

I'll wait whilst my American friends stop gasping in shock! I'm sorry but it just wasn't a classic Christmas movie in the UK.

Growing up we cried over the 'Snowman', laughed at the muppets, sang along to the 'Sound of Music'  and watched many many other movies like Star Wars, Oliver and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which you could guarantee would be on at some point over Christmas.
In fact it isn't quite the same without the 'Radio Times' and a highlighter pen to plan out our Christmas holidays.

But this year we were excited when friends told us the new Alamo Drafthouse cinema in town was showing National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation as a quote-a-long.
The new cinema is set up so you can order food and drinks whilst watching the movie.
They gave us big plastic ties to wear and glow sticks to wave when he finally gets the lights to work on the house.
We were then instructed to shout out the quotes as they appeared on screen.

So we settled down with our drinks (I swear those frozen margaritas were pretty strong because I was quite giddy after only two!!) and waited for our dinner whilst the Griswolds burst onto our screens.

And we laughed our socks off the whole way through! What a great way to watch the movie for the first time with people dressed up in silver 'leisure suits' or Griswold Blackhawks' hockey shirts, shouting out the lines and laughing a second or two before the jokes.

And we laughed even more when the lights came on and we realised some of those crazy dressed up people were our Chiropractor and the owner of Charlotte's dance school!

What a great night out and we now have a new Christmas tradition to add to the list! I bought the movie on DVD and am already looking forward to cosying up in front of the fire next year to laugh along to their crazy antics!!

Thank you Penners! :)