As an adult, I have much more sympathy for my parents than I ever did as a child. Looking back, I can’t help but feel sorry for them, actually. They’re a couple of perfectly normal, down-to-earth people. They didn’t ask to have the weirdest kid on the block who was completely obsessed with Star Wars and He-Man and Muppets and, oh yeah, also happened to be gay. But they did their best, and they persevered. One of my favorite Christmas memories is waking up to find not one, but two Kenner tauntaun figures under the tree, ready to be ridden into battle against the evil Empire or Hoth wampas. Only later did I discover that my reserved and stoic father, the strong and silent type, drove hundreds of miles and searched every store in the surrounding parts of the state to find them. As much as I loved my tauntauns, the vision of him on a quest, asking toy store employees for help, then driving on to the next store, outshines any toy I could have received. I didn’t even realize my father knew what a tauntaun was, much less how to ask for one or where to find one. So, as you can imagine (and can probably relate), I have a special fondness for the fan film Christmas Tauntauns, which was all the rage a few years ago. So, in the immortal words of poor, doomed Mrs. Davenport, “Won’t you join us in a carol before we open our gifts?”
As an adult, I have much more sympathy for my parents than I ever did as a child. Looking back, I can’t help but feel sorry for them, actually. They’re a couple of perfectly normal, down-to-earth people. They didn’t ask to have the weirdest kid on the block who was completely obsessed with Star Wars and He-Man and Muppets and, oh yeah, also happened to be gay. But they did their best, and they persevered. One of my favorite Christmas memories is waking up to find not one, but two Kenner tauntaun figures under the tree, ready to be ridden into battle against the evil Empire or Hoth wampas. Only later did I discover that my reserved and stoic father, the strong and silent type, drove hundreds of miles and searched every store in the surrounding parts of the state to find them. As much as I loved my tauntauns, the vision of him on a quest, asking toy store employees for help, then driving on to the next store, outshines any toy I could have received. I didn’t even realize my father knew what a tauntaun was, much less how to ask for one or where to find one. So, as you can imagine (and can probably relate), I have a special fondness for the fan film Christmas Tauntauns, which was all the rage a few years ago. So, in the immortal words of poor, doomed Mrs. Davenport, “Won’t you join us in a carol before we open our gifts?”
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