35 Days of Favorites: What We’re Watching These Days

Every year, my list of birthday favorites has included our favorite TV show of the year. Last year I shared how Ben and I were hooked on “Once Upon a Time”. Apparently, we really like watching it, because even though it just finished up the second season, we’re already watching it over again.

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But here’s the difference: we’re watching it with friends.

My favorite TV show hasn’t changed this year, because I’ve been learning that what we’re watching isn’t as important as who we watch it with.

A few months ago, my friend Sarah and I started talking about how we spent so many evenings stuck at home after the kids were in bed, and decided that we should start hanging out more in the evenings, even if all we were doing was watching TV together. She lives three houses down from me, so we agreed to run over in sweatpants, get comfy, and start sharing more life together.

We were going to watch “Once Upon a Time” together, just the two of us, but one day when we were having supper together as families, we started talking about our”Once Upon a Time” plan with Ben and her husband, Joel. I would not have pegged him as a fairytale type of a guy, but something about our description of the show seemed to catch his attention, and he said he’d like to watch it with us.

Our kids had been playing together for a long time already that evening, and it was past bedtime, but nobody wanted to stop hanging out, so we said, “Put your kids to bed here, and we’ll start watching it tonight!”

They ran home to grab bedtime stuff for their girls, we put all the kids to bed at our house, got some popcorn ready, and had our very first evening of watching shows late into the night, talking, snacking, and procrastinating on ending our time together.

It was so good. We loved it.

And now we do it often. Summer’s been kinda busy, but we still manage to hang out as often as we can, and I love it for so many reasons:

1) I love sharing something I love with people I love.

2) I love it that Joel and Sarah’s kids like coming over to our house for a mini sleepover, and I love it that our girls want to stay at their place, too. They have their usual sides to sleep on in Joel and Sarah’s bed, and Kaylia has even requests goodnight hugs from Uncle Joel. (When it’s time to go home, we scoop the girls up in their sleeping bags, drive back to our house, and plop them into their beds. They barely wake up!)

3) I have completely gotten over my need for planning these things far in advance, having a spotless house, or fancy snacks. Spur of the moment works just fine! It has become real, normal life, and I am so glad we get to share it with them. My happiest moment yesterday: Sarah saying that we’re not really “company” anymore. 🙂

So, yes, we’re still watching “Once Upon a Time”, but it’s so much more fun than it used to be!

Any TV favorites out there? Who do you like to watch with most?

34 Days of Favorites: TV Show

Oh, guys. This is a favorite you MUST try. Unless you’re male. Then maybe not so much…

Now, you have all probably heard about my love for the TV show “Heartland”.

But that was nothing. Just a passing crush. I have met my true TV love.

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It’s this British drama called “Larkrise to Candleford”, which is a strange name, I realize. What is that? I totally wouldn’t have watched it, but I was reading a blog one day, written by a woman who’s husband was finishing up his Master’s. He would feel so bad about spending every evening doing homework, but she would happily run off on her own to watch “Larkrise to Candleford”. She said she loved the characters more and more all the time.

Ben and I were looking for a new show to watch, so we gave it a try. The first episode was…slow. The second one was a little better, but not enough to grab Ben’s attention, so he gave up, but I persevered. I had hope that I would love it yet.

And oh my goodness. There are no words to describe.

But I will try. It’s an old-fashioned kind of story, about a young girl who grows up in a town called Larkrise, and she gets a job in the nearby town of Candleford, working in the post office. There are so many wonderful characters, and the story is squeaky clean, beautiful, moving, deep. I’m constantly scribbling down quotes, because it’s profound. I just love it.

You can check it out here. I’ve been watching it on Youtube, which Ben says is a bit gray, legally. Shh, don’t tell anyone. But I’m planning to buy the full seasons on DVD, which you can find here. And there’s books, too! Those might need to be tried, as well!

Now I also happily run off to watch my show while Ben is busy finishing up his Master’s. I’ve never been so excited about him doing homework!

If “Larkrise to Candleford” is not your speed, there is another show Ben and I got totally hooked on. It’s called “Once Upon a Time”, and the storyline sounds totally ridiculous, but it’s totally amazing.

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We love watching it together, but it’s just a bit darker, and has more of an edge to it than my sweet Larkrise. Ben’s mom sat down to watch it with us once, and she lasted about two minutes. She doesn’t like fantasy stuff, so “Once Upon a Time” was definitely not her flavour. But it’s also really good, and you can check it out here. I won’t even try to describe that one, because I don’t know what I would say. It is not what you would expect – it’s about Snow White and her fairy tale character friends, but it can be scary and intense and just crazy, in a really good way. (Ben recently went out for coffee with a friend, and somehow found out his friend watches it too! I asked if they sat in the coffee shop discussing their favorite episodes of “Once Upon a Time“, but he said no. Whatever. They totally should have!)

Don’t let the incredibly cheesy description scare you away! It’s gotten fantastic ratings, and was created by the writers of Lost. You should give it a try, if you like fantasy.

There really are good things to watch, if you dig around enough. Keep your standards high, and carry on. My sister says she just doesn’t watch TV, which is a great option as well, but oh, the pleasure that is mine when I have my cup of peppermint tea, and an episode of Larkrise!

What about you? Have any favorite shows you love to watch?

(If you’re just joining in, and want find out what this “34 Days of Favorites” is all about, click here.)