In less than an hour I’m off to see Rise of Skywalker with the kids.

All the feels.

First Showing

Since the new movies started coming out, I’ve always gone to the early screening on Thursday night so I could “pre-screen” the movie for my kids. Mostly I just wanted to see it first and they couldn’t be up that late. And OK, I totally did need to pre-screen it (Milo still leaves the room for that one scene in Force Awakens).

But this time around I opted not to pre-screen it. I figured they’re old enough, and staying up late on Thursday with school on Friday didn’t seem like a good idea. So we’re going first thing after school today (last day of school before break—what a way to celebrate!).

I’m excited to experience the movie for the first time with the kids. For all the previous movies I’d already seen it and knew what was coming to watch how they reacted. This time we’ll experience it together.

Of course Lexi wasn’t thrilled about that when she found out we could have seen it last night.

Growing up With Star Wars

Perhaps my favorite part of this experience is watching my kids grow up with it. They were 7 and 9 when Force Awakens came out, and now they’re 11 and 13.

Lexi has been over-the-top excited, and she keeps saying, “My childhood is on the line!”

It’s pretty funny.

But I totally get it. This is the end of the saga, and to us uber-nerd-fans, it means a lot.

Expectations

So what am I expecting? I don’t know. A good time. Even when these movies were bad (ahem, prequels), I had a good time watching them in the theater. The music comes up, the title appears and it’s just like, yes. Even if the movie sucks (and some have), I’ll enjoy that.

But let’s be honest—I’ve really liked these new movies. So I’m expecting something good. And it’s a tall order. There’s a lot to wrap up, and you just can’t please everyone.

So we’ll enjoy it. We’ll wear our Star Wars shirts (I’ve got my Mandalorian and Baby Yoda shirt!), we’ll go Solo style (smuggling snacks in… shhh), and when it’s over we’ll go out to eat and dissect the movie to no end (doing our best not to spoil it for anyone around us).

And then we’ll probably go see it again. Cuz it’s Star Wars.