Bring It On

When my daughter was in grad school, she suggested that for Christmas, we draw names for gift giving because she was poor. She was living in Florida at the time, so we did a Skype Christmas with her. She had drawn her brother’s name, so she sent the gift home for him to open.

Come Christmas Day, he opens a box that contains at least twenty copies of the movie Bring It On, on VHS. Apparently, when Blockbuster was closing, daughter and her husband went in to see what VHS they could pick up. They ended up buying, among other things, a couple of dozen copies of Bring It On, then proceeded to use them for her brother’s presents. Each one was wrapped individually, and while some only contained the video, others had gift cards or small gifts in them. This meant that he had to open every single one of them, lest he miss a real gift. It was hilarious, and interesting to see what she could get to fit into an empty VHS case.

Those videos have shown up for every Christmas since. Sometimes it’s a bunch. Sometimes it’s one — like last year when my oldest once again nailed his brother with it, packing a single tape into a huge box that was nested with about a dozen other boxes, till he got to the video. No gift. Just the video. Sometimes it’s a bunch of them, again with some containing gifts, some not. At this point, everyone in the family has at least one copy of Bring It On in their home, just waiting for the next holiday season to hit. So I guess it’s not surprising that while my daughter was helping me organize for The Next Big Thing (more on that in a month or so), we came across eight copies. My mother even has one in her shelves of movies — and she doesn’t even know the joke. She’s also never seen the movie.

So if you have holiday traditions or not, just know that our Christmas involves a random cheerleading movie on VHS, proving that you can create new holiday traditions out of anything, and at any point in life.

I thought I had a cheerleading pattern to show you today, but it sold, so I’m going for ice skating realness instead. Have a great Monday.

Lisa