Easter Traditions and Movie Review

It's always just been me and my mom. I've never had a big family- my parents are divorced, I'm an only child, my mom had a brother but he's lost (literally speaking- we can't find him), my grandpa lives in Puerto Rico, and my grandma lived with friends and we were estranged from her until I was 16, and then she passed away when I was 18.

For holidays, sometimes we would go to my "fake" grandparents house (they were very close family friends) or other family friends. When I was in college and now with C, I would sometimes go by my boyfriend's house for major holidays. 

When we were with other people, the traditions were pretty similar-- go to church (if the holiday calls for it, like Easter), have "family" banter, and eat a big meal together at their house. 

But when I stay with my mom for whatever holiday, we had a tradition too. We go out to eat (usually brunch) and go to the movies. We would bring our own snacks, pay for and see some "fluffy" chick flick, and then if anything else was interesting, we would sneak into several other movies at the theater! Such rebels!

This year, we didn't want to see anything other than Water for Elephants. It's harder now that I live so far away from her- it takes so long to go and come home, and I have to schedule it with trains, which makes it less enjoyable. But we did have a lovely brunch in NYC, and went to the movies. 

I have to say, I had higher expectations for this movie. Had I read any reviews whatsoever, I probably wouldn't have, but I made a point not to check them out. There was absolutely no chemistry between Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson. None. They just weren't a good fit together. Pattinson plays a dead guy in those vampire movies just fine, but he's not so great acting as a lie person. And actually, the best character was Reese's husband. He was the most realistic. The storyline was unbelievable, I felt nothing for the characters, except for the elephant, and I didn't really see how the title linked with the story. I am kind of glad I didn't read the book first, because I probably would have liked the movie even less. 

The elephant, Rosie, was pretty flippin awesome though. 

Do you have any specific family traditions? Did you see or read Water for Elephants? What did you think?