The Perfect Present (by Bet)

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Yesterday I went on a desperate buying trip to finish out the Christmas I think we must have each year.  I say buying because I don't shop.  I walk into a store with a list, preferably with a product number, purchase that and walk out.  I was in Target for an hour and a half with two small children to buy ten items.  It was not enjoyable.  Although I have to say my kids really liked the escalator in that store and spent the time I was in line going up and down, up and down.

Later, we went to a small bead store on our way to swim team.  There, I wondered about dreaming about what I could make, my daughter found all things sparkly, and my son ran his hands happily over every string of beads he could find.  No one got angry at him, because that is what you do in a bead store.

This is where I received the perfect Christmas present.  A gentlemen was selling his necklaces to the owner of the store.  He looked over and asked my daughter if she wanted a necklace.  If I was a person who had taught my daughter to be afraid of strangers she would not have known what to do.  Instead, she smiled her shy smile and looked over at me.  He gave her a necklace that looks like a moon rock and takes on different colors in different light.  The same man gave my son a larger stone of the same rock.  Later, when I was paying for the few stones I indulged in, he gave me a necklace of the same stone mixed with my birth stone.  It was beautiful.  He didn't ask for anything in return.  He didn't even say Merry Christmas.  He does this all the time, spreading joy throughout the year.

So in the middle of one of the lousiest days I found something to be grateful for.  This man gave me the perfect present and it wasn't the necklace.  It was a reminder that Christmas joy should be spread all year long and it definitely isn't about presents.  It's about kindness, love and generosity.  It's about doing the unexpected for complete strangers.  It's about a smile in the middle of Target for worn down mamas just doing their best.