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Friday Evening, December 24

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Jere invited us to go with their family and Roy, Deb and Barb (Roy’s mom) to see a movie at Penn Cinema. This was a regular happening for us until Covid cancelled it last year. They look over the reviews and choose the movie they think will best fit our group.

There are 10 rooms/screens (not all are open right now) so there are several choices of movies and a nice variety of times. We went for the 4 pm matinee of Encanto.

Back – L to R: Cerwin (my empty seat is to his left.), Ian, Jared, Yeira (Jared’s friend), Jana and Austin. Front: Jesse, Deb, Roy (hiding), Barb, Kristen and Jere.

By the time the reviews and advertisements began, our crew was settled in with lots of popcorn, soft pretzels, candy and soda.

We rarely go to a theater, but each time we do I think to myself, “Wow, this is better than a big screen TV.” 🙂

Encanto tells the tale of an extraordinary family, the Madrigals, who live hidden in the mountains of Colombia in a place called an Encanto.

The story began when the family matriarch was a young mother with three babies (they appeared to be triplets) as she and her husband, Pedro, were escaping their home because of armed conflict. During the escape her husband, Pedro, was captured and killed. However, she and the three children escaped.

I loved the colors, beauty and creativity of this cartoon.

There was a magical candle, which of course is not real, but the relationships in the family were realistic. Everyone tried to impress each other with their gifts which created jealously and misunderstanding.

Mirable, the lead character, felt she was never given a special gift like the rest of her family and Bruno (her uncle) chose to remove himself and hide from the others.

As happens in fairytales and cartoons, there was a happy ending – but only after much pain, destruction and misunderstanding.

Four of Jere and Kristen’s children: Jesse, Jana, Ian and Jared. We missed Josh who was in Philadelphia with his sweet Emily. She spent many Christmas hours working. She is an ER and trauma nurse.

Their family members who were with us: Austin (new son-in-law), Jana, Jesse, Ian, Kristen, Jere, Jared and his friend Yeira.

Thanks for inviting us, Jere and Kristen.