Friday night''s alright for eating junk!

One of my greatest memories as a kid was Friday nights.
After dinner on Fridays, dad always took us out to The Pop Shoppe, and we'd pick out a dozen or so little bottles of pop, with flavours like root beer, cream soda, lime, grape and orange pop. It was a big deal since that was really the only time we were allowed pop (other than b-day parties and holidays). Next we stopped at the grocery store and picked up chips and cheezies and other carbohydrate bombs. We then spent the rest of the evening in a sugar induced calorie laden semi coma, watching Donny and Marie, and other "family" oriented television of the late 70's.
No school the next day meant that regular bedtime rules went out the window, and usually we felt a little adrenaline rush if we were allowed to stay up until after 9pm (regular bedtime was 8pm). Like we were getting away with something ;)
Saturday morning we'd pack our empty bottles back into the Pop Shoppe red crates, awaiting to be returned the following week when we made the trek to do it all over again.
These memories have stuck in my head some 25 years or more and will stay with me forever. They are happy times that we spent as a family, and something so simple as dad letting US pick which flavour of pop we were going to have that night just made us feel special.

So, I've instituted a Friday night ritual for our own family.
Chris often goes out to his friends house on Fridays, for a guys night - occasionally, he'll stay home with the boys and let me go out with the girls, but every friday night the kids know it's their night.
Thats the night that we say ppphhhhhht to regular bedtimes, bring lots of blankets down into the family room and set up camp in front of the TV for an evening of their choice of viewing, and treats galore.
They love friday nights. They wish every night was friday night - and isn't that how it's supposed to be? Something they look forward to, that one night they get spoiled. Those are the nights they will remember when THEY are 35 and have little kids of their own.
So last night they opted to watch 4 episodes of Dora, eat Cheesies, have a few little Hershey treats that I had tucked away in the cupboard for such an occasion, and we all snuggled into the blankets.
I didn't give them the pop though. They had chocolate milk instead, over much protesting, but I had taken the pop away earlier in the day as punishment for running away, down the street when they were not supposed to be running off. I hate that, and it's dangerous, so their pop privileges were revoked. I guesss it's something to look forward to next week.
Friday nights are killing my diet, but my kids are happy, and we are building memories. Hopefully next week they'll want to watch something like The Incredibles....I mean Dora is great and everything, but something we can all enjoy is better.....
I can hardly wait until they're old enough to watch Die Hard LOL! (long way off I"m sure, and by then, they'll probably be going out with friends instead of spending Friday nights with mom....even if I am really cool.