Christmas story time- In 2009 or so, I was in a discount store and found, in the three dollar DVD bin, a copy of Elf Bowling the Movie. I bought it, watched it once, went "huh, that's kinda delightful" and didn't think about it again for a long time. Flash forward to about 2015, when my partner at the time and I were hopping a plane to Wisconsin to his parents' place for Christmas, where I would meet them for the first time. They had told me to bring any Christmas movies or traditions I had, but most of the physical copies of the things I actually enjoyed belonged to my mom so I couldn't take them. As a goof, I brought Elf Bowling, and not only did they watch it, I have been informed they have watched it every Christmas since.
The trip was miserable for a lot of reasons- the one we took two years later was worse, bad enough that it made both of us realize we didn't want to stay in that relationship. But it still fills my heart that there's a family in Wisconsin who still knows precious little about me except that I brought them the timeless gift of "Who pooped in the peanut barrel?"
