The Christmas Spirit

I deal relatively well with adversity.  I dig my heels in and charge ahead.

I don't deal so well with minor setbacks.  Traffic jams, missing keys, and spilled milk have all been known to send me into a minor tailspin and likely ruin my afternoon.  At least they used to.

Today I had a long serious of minor setbacks starting with a necessary, but extremely ill advised, trip to Toys R Us three days before Christmas.  The trip was a failure (including a projectile vomit incident in the carseat/car) and I came home to make the necessary purchase online.  Only to have to call them three times.  After almost two hours dealing with Toys R Us to purchase one item, it's on it's way, but we've been charged the wrong amount and have been billed twice for the same item.  Frustrating.  Exactly the type of setback to ruin my afternoon.

Only it didn't.  I was slightly irritated and it was a bit of a challenge trying to feed Colin and talk on the phone and make an online order all at once, but as I hung up on my last failed phone call I realized I am so incredibly grateful to have a reason to be shopping at Toy R Us, as frustrated as I am with them.  So I wrapped my baby in a Moby wrap and decided to go for a walk.

On my door step was a small package with a note that it was a random act of kindness in memory of one of victims of the Sandy Hook shooting, Charlotte Bacon.  Any remaining frustration melted and I hugged my son closer to my chest.  Even with my intentional sheltering from the outside world, it's been impossible not to follow the news of the families in Connecticut.  My heart breaks. 

In the hustle of the last few days before the holidays, I think we could all use a reminder to stop and remember what really matters.  Hug your children close, call your mom and tell her you love her, and let that guy merge in front of you in the mall parking lot.  

Merry nearly Christmas.