Christmas Kindness

It's amazing how a new baby makes Christmas seem a million times more magical again!  I am more excited for Christmas this year than I have been in a long time.  I mean, I am ALWAYS excited for Christmas, but this year has a little something extra.  However, despite all my excitement surrounding Christmas, I did find myself getting a little frazzled today.

I had to do some last minute Christmas shopping, true to form, so I headed up to Meijer.  While I was there, Benny was a perfect angel, as always.  He WAS a perfect angel, that is, until I got in line to check out.  This was my first moment experiencing the feeling of being the mom with the screaming child at the store.  Out of nowhere he just started fussing.  I grabbed his bottle,  but this seemed to do no good.  He was fussing and immediately began spitting up all over himself.  While I was trying to calm him down, I was mean mugging the two ladies in front of me who had been trying to figure out the self-scan machine for approximately twenty minutes.  I began contemplating a line jump, but I knew that would inevitably lead to me getting stuck behind an extreme couponer or something of the sort.  Anyhow, when it was finally my turn I noticed that the guy behind me had two items in his hands: diapers and milk.  I, with the full cart and the screaming baby I was attempting to calm as I was beginning to check out, decided to let him go ahead.  Let's be honest, we both knew I was gonna be a while.  After he left, I started checking out and Benny started screaming louder and louder.  I finally got to the end of my items and was attempting to pay.  I swiped my card, hushed Benny, and tried to start bagging my items when the machine beeped.  My card was declined.  I tried again, knowing I had plenty of money in my account.  I swiped the card, hushed the baby, attempted to bag and again heard the ominous beep.  The lady behind me was looking highly irritated.  Suddenly, this lovely lady that reminded me greatly of Loni Love came up and started calming Benny.  She smiled at me and said, and  I quote this precisely, "Honey-Child, I'm gonna bag your groceries for you and smile at this baby.  You go on and get your money figured out and don't you worry a thing about those people behind you."  I almost cried.  Ok, that's a lie.  I was already tearing up from the stressful situation I had found myself in, but more tears came out due to the immense gratitude I felt for this lady.

Finally, after just deciding to use my credit card, and realizing I hadn't paid for the beer in my cart and had to put it back (the one thing I was really looking forward to when I got home), I was done.  I wanted to hug Loni Love like she was my long lost sibling, but I refrained and gave her a very sincere "Merry Christmas" with a "Thank You" on top.  As I pulled the cart away from the check-out, Benjamin instantly fell asleep.  Literally, he immediately stopped crying and passed out the SECOND I headed away from the check out.  I couldn't help but giggle through my tears.

After this, I headed to the dollar store to pick up wrapping paper, bows, and all the stuff to go with it.  Left there, and walked over to Subway to pick up dinner.  As soon as I walk into Subway, there's a lady running behind me with my bag I left at the dollar store.  She hands it to me and says, "You forgot your bag, and I didn't want you to have to run back out with that adorable baby!".  Yup, waterworks again...

It's the little kindnesses in this world that can make your day, your week, or even your season.  Thank you lady that looked a lot like Loni Love and other lady that kind of looked like my Mamaw.   Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!