Angels in Disguise

Growing up, I was a Jehovah's Witness. As such, I didn't celebrate Christmas or any other holiday for that matter, including my birthday until I was 13. Holidays had been so villified in my mind from the time I was born that I still remember the fear I had when my big sister Shelly and her husband Wally, brought me my first birthday cake and first birthday gift. They gave me a gold bracelet, and I still remember the excitement laced with guilt I felt while eating that white cake with the sugary frosting. Even with the fear, it is a great memory for me and I love my sister for that guilty pleasure.

As I said, holidays, especially Christmas were demonized in my mind. I remember being in Kindergarten and my mom giving me strict instructions to NOT tell the other kids at school that their parents were LIARS and that Santa Claus was fake, and that Christmas ISN'T EVEN Jesus' birthday, you bunch of morons, and that Jehovah God is in Heaven right now, shaking his head in disappointment over the greed and selfishness that is done in HIS SON'S NAME!

Oh yea, I was all ready to tell them little 5 year olds all about their "GREAT HOLIDAY" and that don't you know Christmas time has the highest suicide rate more than any other time of year???

Yep, in kindergarten I knew all of that and absolutely would have stood on the craft table and announced it to the whole class, if my mom hadn't threatened me with a major spanking if I did it. Seriously, I did not want to be bloodguilty (bloodguilty: a term used by Jehovah's Witnesses to describe your guilt for not spreading the true word of God) for all of those darn kids in my class for not telling them the "truth" when I had the chance. And yes, in kindergarten I was well acquaninted with the term bloodguilty.

So, the first few years of celebrating Christmas were hard and scary. I had to overcome years of conditioning before I could finally relax and be okay with celebrating the holiday. It still is not my favorite holiday, I am more of a Halloween gal. But, now that I have children and we have our traditions, such as decorating the tree and each of us getting a new ornament every year, opening one gift on Christmas Eve which is always pajamas and then reading Twas the Night Before Christmas, I really do enjoy it.

The other thing I am thankful for, is that because I was raised with such a negative connotation around Christmas, I really do my best to see all the good and wonder that comes out of Christmas time. This season really can open people's hearts and allows them to display their generosity and kindness and much of the time no one even knows about it. I think it is important to share those stories and so here are two stories I witnessed myself:

Monster Truck Madness:

This past weekend we had a family outing to MONSTER JAM a monster truck show. Sampson had been talking about it for weeks and I was so excited to take them. Sitting in the row ahead of us was a man with his two little boys, one was probably 5 and the other 2 years old. The dad was so excited to be there and I heard him tell the guy sitting next to hm more than once that he thought he was more excited than his boys were to be there. It was fun for me just to see how happy he was.

Through the course of the show they had gotten food and drinks and his boys were so well behaved, which I admired after my own son had a major meltdown in the hallway. Darn the NO NAP afternoon! Towards the end of the show a vendor comes up the aisle with bags of cotton candy and foam hats shaped like monster trucks. So the 5 year old asks his dad for it, and the dad waves the vendor over and says "how much is it?" the vendor says "$15 bucks". At that point I almost screamed RAPE, but I held my tongue. So the boy goes to the end of the aisle and stands by the vendor, dad starts counting his money, he only has $14 in cash....

Dad walks over to the vendor says "Man, I only got $14." The vendor says "Can't do it, buddy." and walks away. The son looks at his dad and the dad says "Hey Buddy, I was a dollar short, but I promise when we leave we will get you something else cool." The son takes it in stride and says "Ok", he looked a little disappointed, but handled it amazingly well. I was so impressed, and then was mad at myself for not bringing cash, and then mad at myself for not getting a dollar from someone else we were with...and while these thoughts are going through my mind, this big kinda scary looking guy comes leaning over me, and hands a bag of cotton candy with the hat to the dad, and says "This is for your boy." The dad says,"Oh no, that's ok." And the guy says "Take it, it's for your boy, he should have it."

I almost burst into tears right there. This guy was a big old biker man with the crabbiest look on his face, and yet he had a damn heart of gold, he was an angel in disguise that night at Monster Jam. It was so touching and I had to share it.

So to you Monster Truck Angel: Thank you for helping me to appreciate the Christmas Spirit and the beauty of kindness even more!

American Girl:

This story came from my sister last night while we sat at my mom's kitchen table. My sister works with a guy who is a tough ex-cop, gruff and rough around the edges and is having some tough times, just like a lot of people. Well, he has a 5 year old daughter who wants an American girl doll for Christmas. He and his wife were so proud to go to the mall and buy her that doll. He happens to overhear his daughter talking to her best friend (who is the daughter of his wifes friend), and she says "I asked Santa for an American Girl Doll" her bestie says "I asked for an American Girl doll last year, but Santa couldn't bring me one. So, if Santa doesn't bring you one, don't be to sad."

Well, that did not sit right with gruff ex-cop dad. He talks to his wife and says they have to buy this girl an American Girl doll for Christmas. The wife tells him, there is no way they can afford ANOTHER American Girl doll, they are struggling as it is and it is just to much. Dad says, "Maybe I can get my boss to buy the doll." So, he approaches his boss, who tells him as kindly as she can, that she has already donated a bunch and so she just can't do it.

But, since he has been helping her with some other stuff, she had already written him a check for $200, and she gives him the check.

Dad takes the unexpected check, spends $100 of it on that American Girl Doll, tells his wife he had gotten an extra hundred and that his boss had bought the doll. He didn't want his wife to know what he had done.

The wife manages to find out anyway and says you could have told me. But, gruff ex-cop dad doesn't want the glory.

Well, Angel-in-disguise as a gruff ex-cop dad, you are getting it anyways because that is beautiful.

Seeing kindness all around me,

Gabbi