Its a Reynolds-ful World: Day 2 of 12 days of christmas kindness

Well let me start by saying today didn't turn out quite as I expected! Gentry has been a pistol today and insisted on pairing her cute christmas outfit with a ridiculous tutu. I decided this was not the battle to choose so we left the house tutu and all. we had all intentions of going to target one of our favorite stores and blessing the poor guy that has to round up all the carts in the parking lot, but when we got there to my surprise there were no carts in the parking lot and he was no where to be found. So we headed inside to do a little shopping and hope that by the time we got back out there we would find him.....

now entering the main part of our story... we did our shopping and when we headed to checkout they of course only had 2 open (why they even waste the time building the rest I'll never know because it seems there are always only 2 open) so we hopped in line and waited.... and waited... and waited some more! today was a busy day at target and I can tell you it was also full of some grumpy customers too, that I had the pleasure of waiting in line with, but back to our story... the poor lady at the cash register was frazzled, looked exhausted, and appeared to be in a bad mood herself. Thats when it hit me, THIS IS OUR PERSON TODAY!!! I sat there thinking what we could do to bless her while also trying to keep my kids from having a meltdown due to our wait... Gentry kept grabbing snickers bars and bringing them to me so I figured this was a sign, I popped a snickers bar on the counter with the rest of our stuff and tried to talk to the Lady while she rang me up... she was not having it, not one bit she was too focued on getting thru the line of grumpy folks behind me! she handed the snickers back to me thinking it was probably for me cause I look like I love snickers ;) I had some tape in my diaper bag and a tag too that read

"Our family is on a fun mission to keep the focus on others this Christmas. We hope this gesture lit up your heart in a speacial way today. it sure did make us smile thinking of you"

... I taped it on the snickers bar handed it to gentry and told her to go give it to the old lady and give her a hug... So she did :) (proud mom moment) the little old lady said "oh thats your mommys"(haha I guess its time to lay off the sweets) to which I said "nope we got that for you":... she was in shock and I did not expect this, but she started crying and said "why thank you, this just made my day sweetheart" and knealt down to give Gentry a hug... not only was the lady beaming but so was my 2 year old.... I turned around to the long line that she still had ahead of her and could sense that there had already been an attitude adjustment by the smiles I now saw ;) we headed back to the parking lot to see if we could locate the cart wrangler, but he wasn't anywhere to be found so instead we found a few carts and taped a cherry candycane to them along with a note saying

" Surprise! this isn't a promotion or a trick. we are just one family trying to focus on others this season. so enjoy your special treat today. we hope it made you smile" 

what I learned today: sometimes a ridiculous tutu or a simple gesture of love can change the attitudes of the strangers you come in contact with on a daily basis. instead of being impatient this holiday season and focused on a to do list. take some time to love on the simple people around you. It won't only change their attitude but yours too ;) my impatient attitude has now been adjusted and hopefully forever changed (fingers crossed) simply by watching my child In a ridiculous tutu bless a little old lady that we otherwise would have just gone off and left never once thinking twice about...