The Best Way To Spread Christmas Cheer...

Have you seen the movie Elf, starring Will Ferrel? I haven't. But some friends of mine love the movie and have shared this quote with me:


It is catchy and stuck in my head. (You can thank me later that it is now stuck in your head.)

Well, today, while I was in line at the local dollar store, Mary ran off behind a rack. When she didn't come back within 10 seconds, I left my basket on the ground in line, told the lady behind me I'd be right back, and went to get her.

In the 20 seconds I was gone, the lady behind me changed lines and New Lady took her place. The store was crowded today and we ended up waiting in line several minutes. About 3 minutes into the wait, New Lady turned to me and said, "Do you really think you are in front of me?" I was a bit taken aback and found it in myself to say, "No, that's fine," and waved her in front of us.

It kind of shocked me that she was so forward and condescending towards me. I'm not prone to picking fights with strangers and was prepared to let it go. Charlotte asked me why she was in front of us and I brushed her question off because I wasn't sure I could give her a cheerful answer.

Then the lady turned to me and said, "That's a nice trick though. To leave your basket and then come back and think you can skip people in line." Now I was even more shocked and I tried to explain that I had already been in line for a couple of minutes when my youngest took off. This lady didn't care.

So, I turned to Charlotte and asked, "Do you know the best way to spread Christmas cheer?" Never having seen the movie Elf, she replied, "No, what is it Mommy?"

"The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loudly for all to hear. What's your favorite Christmas song Charlotte?"

She replied by belting out Jingle Bells for all to hear!

I couldn't have planner her response any better. New Lady (with about 20 different items in her basket) was checking out and just exhaled loudly in response. Mean while, the nice couple behind us thought it was all very sweet, oblivious to why I even asked the question in the first place

I'm sure there are lots of rational reasons for New Lady to have been so grouchy today. I'm just glad I had my girls with me to help me keep my own attitude in check.  Maybe I'll need to take Shawna Lee's advice and change my ring tone!

Comments

  1. JoyThu Dec 01, 03:29:00 PM EST

    Wow! You handled that with such grace. Great example and awesome parenting. That would have been a really hard situation for me...

    ReplyDelete
  2. JenniferThu Dec 01, 10:34:00 PM EST

    Joy - It was hard for me too. I was so irritated by her attitude, which I didn't do a very good job of conveying above, that I really just wanted to lay into her. So many different things irritated me. I guess one of the ones that got me worst is that she thought I was the kind of sneaky person who would skip in line like that. It just is so not me!

    ReplyDelete

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