maleficent

totally unrelated picture of peonies

Ken and I took the kids to see Maleficent last night at our little local movie theater and you guys, it was so fun.  I was really surprised by how much we all four enjoyed it.  Our expectations were low--the previews made it look so dark and scary--but it was actually sweet on many levels and there were fairies and magical folk, and we always like that sort of thing.  I'm not a big Angelina Jolie fan, but she was not bugging me at all in this.  I was able to forget that she is "Angelina Jolie" and just get lost in the movie--so I guess she did her job.  And Elle Fanning was adorable. 

To tell you the truth, we live in a very small town and we rarely patronize our local movie theater--mostly because we don't really have a babysitter locally.  We end up going to the big multi-plex in Oxnard.  But lately I've been thinking about "voting with our dollars" and it's important to me that our local theater continues to stay in business, so we decided to see Maleficent in town last night.  And when we got there I was so pleased with the "feel" of the experience.  The theater is just so small and cute and we always see people we know (small town thing).  I was charmed by the snack bar--again, small and "local" feeling.  I think we are going to make more of an effort to see movies locally when we can.

Other ways I am "voting with my dollars"--I also shop quite a bit at our local market, which just changed ownership--and I basically refuse to go to a large supermarket like Vons and Ralph's (ugh--hate those places so much!).  (To be fair, we do do a large shop-up at Trader Joe's once a week as well, but are constantly running out to the local store for everythiing else and last minute stuff).

Do you like to shop locally?  Also, what did you think about Maleficent??