The Christmas Spirit

Kerry, Reagan and I tried one final holiday shopping push on Sunday morning. Well, let's be honest it is probably not final. Still more to do....

We decided to go to this local discount store and as we pulled into the parking lot noticed that it was going out of business. The parking lot was packed and we were dreading what we would find inside. Actually it was not too bad, long lines, but you are going to find that anywhere this time of year. We hit up the departments where we knew there were items we wanted and then wandered the rest of the store. Since Reagan is a girl on the go these days, she really likes to walk through the store rather sit in the cart. She must have picked up every gross item possible on the floor. I cringed but just kept cleaning her hands off, with all the action, this was a battle not worth fighting.

As we got to the center of the store, they had rows and rows of these dolls. They were called "Kinder Garden Babies". They had tons of them. Reagan spotted one just at her level and ran towards it. The boxes have a little handle on the top like a suitcase, she picked it up and hugged it to her chest saying "mine, mine". To be honest the doll was a little tacky and we had bought her more than enough Xmas gifts so I just waited until she was distracted, stashed it on another shelf and we moved on.

As we were leaving the store, we paused on the sidewalk to come up with a truck loading attack plan. As we stood there a woman walked by and stopped to say hi to Roo. She said to us "Did you see these dolls in there, they are only $2.99!" as she pulled the same exact Kinder Garden Baby out of her bag that Roo had wanted so badly. "You should get her one." I thanked her for letting us know and said "Not today. Maybe we will come back another time. She seemed to really like them." Figuring that the woman would understand and be on her way. Instead she reached out to Reagan with the doll and said "Do you like this?" Reagan smiled and started poking at the box. Then the woman said, "Well you know what, you can have this one." I have to say that both Kerry and I were extremely touched and we couldn't say no. What a sweet gesture. This woman did not know us, did not know our situation and had obviously made the purchase with someone else in mind. Out of the goodness of her heart and what I can only assume is some good old fashioned Christmas Spirit she selflessly gave a little blonde girl she didn't know the one thing she had really wanted all day. I was floored.

As she walked away and Kerry walked to get the truck (leaving Roo and I to ooh and ahh over her new doll) the woman looked and Kerry and said "Merry Christmas." He said "Well, now you know you will really have a very Merry Christmas because of what you just did, right?" She just smiled.

So, I guess there are still some good people out there that really believe in giving. I think I have to remember that more often and remind myself that is what this time of year is supposed to represent. Treating people (the ones you know and the ones you don't) with patience, kindness and respect. And giving back whenever you can. As frustrated as I get this with the holiday season, I am so thankful that someone reminded me to to just stop and realize that there is kindness everywhere, sometimes you just need to recognize it.