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Stories of the season... (inspired by the Santa post below)
C'mon, tell a good story about a time you felt the magic of the season.
The last time I was really touched by someones seasonal generosity, I was deep into the depths of my divorce (this was last year) and really struggling: One morning in line at Starbucks someone in front of me paid for my order. That small act meant so much to me, in fact I wept all the way to work that day and had to call my BFF to tell her how moved I was.
I know it was just a small thing, but sometimes those gestures mean the most (especially when you feel like the world has turned against you). That KMart story from this year has moved me to tears just thinking about it, and there are a hundred other stories like that one... I'm a big believer in random acts of kindness.
I don't know what the point of this post was, maybe I just needed to focus on the good of the holiday season for a moment. Please share similar stories, big or small, of a time when someone showed you the "Santa spirit."
Re: Stories of the season... (inspired by the Santa post below)
It was tonight. I don't know that is is specifically shown to me but more of a situation that allowed me to bring it to someone else.
I have a coworker who is a very private person. I work with this coworker on a regular basis and we chat a little about family life but generally this person doesn't like to talk about their family too much. This coworker has 2 children biologically and two adopted from their spouse's previous relationship. One of the 4 children is terminally ill and requires a lot of this coworker's time. I believe that due to that and some other issues, this coworker's marriage has ended in the last year.
As a bunch of smaller individuals, my other coworkers and I have been able to provide for this one coworker's family to allow them to have a bit more of Christmas than they might otherwise have. Total collected between the money donations and items purchased for the family (gift cards, toys, etc) was around $1000. This will provide for not just Christmas but for groceries later on. We just told this coworker that some people dropped the stuff by and none of us could use the items dropped off.
I don't always know what is going on in this coworker's life but I am honoured to work with a group who is selfless enough to step aside from what we want during the holidays to help one of our own anonymously.
DD was all snuggled into her Christmas Jammies when our pastor grabbed her out of our arms and held her while he delivered the Christmas sermon, using her to demonstrate miracles and all that.
Someone anonymously brought her a Christmas present to church a few days later, with a note about how DD woke him up to some things he needed to do, and how grateful he was to have been taught a lesson by a baby, and left her one of those cool interactive pony things. It was so random, so awesome, and so sweet.
But yeah, my best Christmas love story was when I was on bedrest, in the hospital, scared to death because things were not going well, and Ann arranged for nesties to send ornaments to decorate a tree for me. Those ornaments make me cry like a baby when I open them, because everyone has so much stuff to do in December as it is, who has time to select and send an ornament? It was just the pick me up I needed when I was so down.
And then, when I'm lying in a hospital bed feeling like absolute crap, in comes Mallrats, scissors in hand, and she colored and cut my hair, in my hospital room. And I can't even tell you how nice that was, and how it changed my outlook enough to make it through.
Aw - I remember that! I was just starting to get involved in the board more at the time, what a great story! Our nesties are awesome!
A former Nestie posted this on FB last night. I hope she doesn't mind the C&P but really it is the little things that make the hugest difference sometimes and it made me smile when I read it.
It was so little, but made my day. My total for groceries at Sprouts was $50.41. I had $50 in my hand, and as the cashier noticed me fumbling around for my wallet (while keeping my extra set of eyes on three rowdy kids), he said, "Do you have $50 right there?" As I nodded, he said, "I can take just that," and proceeded to add some 'bag credits' to my order so it came out to $49.96. And then he gave me $0.04 in change.
So, thank you, random cashier.
I remember the Mallrats part but not the ornament round up. Am I that old or did I just never know?
I found a picture of S cutting my hair - in the hospital.
WOW! Your hair was so long. I'm declaring myself definitely old because I don't remember it being that length either.
I was 17 or so. I had a lot of conflict with my parents so I ended up moving out on my own on my 16th birthday. I had no money, a sh!t job, and no plans for the holidays. I was walking on my own late (maybe around midnight?) the day before Christmas Eve. A homeless guy jumped out and scared me half to death. He asked for some money. I told him straight up I didn't have any money or really anything to spare.
::pause::
Then I told him if he picked some of the wild blackberries in town I would make him a pie (there were tons of blackberry bushes all over and had berries still - they should have been barren for months at that point). I already had the stuff for crust so it would be easy. I told him that was all I could do but I was happy to do it. For some unknown stupid reason I then told him where I lived
I woke up the next day to a huge pot of blackberries on my front porch. I invited a friend over and we made pies all day long on Christmas Eve. I think we made a dozen of them. Maybe more? We put a sign on the front door to knock for pie. The guy came back with a bunch of other homeless people. He practically cried when he saw all the pie. He said he never thought I would actually make the pies. He told me how he was in a hard spot in life and that one nice act really made his holiday. After he left I bawled my eyes out. It felt good to do something nice.
We do three services at South Broadway Christian Church on Christmas Eve. The choir members usually do all three services and end up being done around midnight. One year after the 11 o'clock service, someone found a pile of Christmas gifts on our front porch. A family had fallen apart and donated all of their Christmas gifts to the church. We auctioned off the gifts in order to remodel a bathroom that was falling apart.
This year, my daughter and husband lit the advent candles together during the first christmas eve service and she held a candle at the end and sang silent night with me. I about bawled the whole service.
Photo courtesy of Ann Goldenberg Photography