Xmas Miracles
2004-12-27,

Xmas festivities have mostly come and gone, and have pretty much gone well this year. Got some decent loot, including a Strong Bad messenger bag, a Trogdor polo shirt, an awesome Star Wars snowspeeder LEGO set (it's my favourite ship from the series, I have no idea why), a really nice scarf from India, and a few other things that don't come to my Monday-ridden mind. Santa brought the family the infamous DDR with two pads, the rest of the Lord of the Rings series, and much else.

The frighteningly good item we got from H's dad is an RCA RD2780 portable media center. He got it for us for our forthcoming trip to China, as a storage device for digital pictures. It's really expensive and we weren't really expecting him to get us something so phenomenal. We're in his debt, whether he thinks so or not. My dad also gave us a substantial amount of money, mainly again for use in our adoption endeavour. I think we're going to use it to take a large chunk out of our credit debt, since we're going to be using it again on our trip. Again, we are indebted.

It was a gain kind of week at work, because I also won a dollar on an instant ticket that a guy here was handing out as mini-Xmas presents. I also found a quarter in the pop machine. Financial plusses across the board, even if some were small.

The best Xmas miracle happened on Saturday. I was out that morning doing a little grocery shopping in preparation for people coming over for Xmas dinner. I'd found everything I needed at our local Tops... except for chopped spinach. On sale, cleaned out. It forced me to cross the street and enter the local competitor, Buehler's. The place was busy with last-minuters like me, but I managed to find what I was looking for. Unfortunately, my time was running short with the unexpected detour - especially when H needed one of the things I'd bought as an ingredient for which she was waiting. So I go to the check-out area and... wow. Every single line, including the self check-out, was at least seven people deep, everyone brimming with groceries. I was looking at 20 minutes of standing around with two boxes of frozen spinach. While listing back and forth across the store, forcing myself to choose the line in which I would slowly become frustrated and angry, whom should I run into but someone I knew from working at the steel processing plant. Ron works for a steel company and visited our place on a regular basis as a rep. We exchanged a few happy words and updated statuses, and then, after having noticed my apparent time plight, says, "Here, gimme those and meet me on the other side." Apparently his wife was already in check-out process, and he was offering to run the spinach through with their stuff. And he even refused to let me pay the few cents for them. Truly, a hero be has become in my eyes. I shook his hand, tripled my thanks, wished him and his a happy holiday and rushed off. It put a spring in my step for the rest of the day.

It's easy to forget how these gestures, however small, can affect daily life for the better. Both the giver and receiver of these efforts feel (usually) better about themselves and about humanity as a whole. A true Christmas blessing is in order. Xmas miracles abound.

-- End Transmission --