The Little Mermaid

I really hate when things are such cliches, but also so, so true. I’m not sure of one event that is as joked about, but yet is so strikingly correct as a Jewish person’s day on Christmas. There’s two ultimate truths: going to the movies and eating Chinese food. I don’t know how this happened. But these are the only two options for out-of-the-house entertainment in the Northeast (I’m sure Jews in warmer climates are sunning themselves or golfing.)

My family has been going to the movies for 20 years on Christmas. A number we recently calculated by remembering our first film together on Jesus’ birthday: The Little Mermaid.

This year we saw The Blind Side and I wanted to dismiss it as a cheesy, feel good, predicable sports movie. And in many ways it was that, but it was also really fulfilling and fun and sad to watch. And I cried. And I loved it.

But in unpredictability, the Family Gansie did not chow down on lo mein. We ventured to another continent.