I thought that this would be a funny story since it's nearly Christmas time. I lived in Hawaii for the first four year of my life, and I had some nice warm Christmases there. Lots of little kids were scared of Santa when they were little; personally I was never like that. One day my family went to the beach and low and behold there was a rather plump old guy lying on the beach, I thought that he was Santa. Suddenly I was an extremely excited toddler. I tugged on my parents swimming trunks and exclaimed, "Look, there's Santa!""Can I please go talk to him, mommy?" I started pleading. The real Santa Clause was the man standing right next to me trying to think of what he could say to discourage his two year old from embarrassing the poor man.
"Honey, Santa is on vacation right now. If you don't disturb him maybe you will get better presents this year!" My big blue eyes scanned the man who looked like Santa for a final time, and then dimmed a little.
"Okay." I said in disappointment.
When I think of that story I always laugh. My dad had to be rather quick witted to come up with a story to persuade me not to talk to Santa. Personally I would have had no idea what to say in a situation like that! The next one is a really cute story that involves my little brother, Mitch.
One day my little brother decided that he wanted to buy Christmas presents for all five people in our family. It was a very nice act, but seven year olds don't make that much money. Even so he was very determined to feel the happiness of giving. So Michael saved up money the whole year so that he could by us Christmas presents. When it finally reached December, my dad took Mitch to Sam's Club to buy the gifts. In the process of finding Christmas presents the eleven dollars that my brother had saved fell out of his pocket. A few minutes later my brother reached into his pocket to feel the money that he earned, but there was a problem, it wasn't there! As you can imagine it broke my brother’s heart. All of his money that he had earned all year was gone! Tearfully he told my dad what had happened. My dad was also heart broken to see his own little boy so sad. He took Mitch up to the lost and found and told the workers about the money that Mike had lost. After hearing my dad's case, the employee spoke on the loud speaker.
"A little boy has lost eleven dollars that he has saved to buy Christmas presents. If anyone finds it, please bring it to the lost and found, thank you." I'm sure that there were plenty of dishonest people that went looking for the money after that revealing announcement; many probably just so that they could put it into their own wallets. But who knows what really happened to the money that Mitch dropped? Most likely it was found by one of those people who wanted it for themselves, but that's not important. Just after the employee finished his sentence over the intercom, the Sam's Club Santa Clause came jogging towards us. He was probably just an old man trying to earn a little money for the holidays by dressing up and holding little kids, but he gave up his own earnings to help an adorable little boy that he had never met.
"Here you go little guy," said Santa, bending down on one knee so that he could be level with my brother,
"I found your money!" He then proceeded to hand my brother eleven dollars. We could all see that my dad felt a lump in his throat as he whispered,
"Thank you."
I don't know if you believe in karma, but I do. That same December we went to Universal Studios for Christmas break. As we were walking towards the entrance, my dad spotted a little bundle of dollar bills wrapped up in a little ribbon. As he looked at that money he had a flash back of when Mitch lost his money. That money could belong to a poor little kid like Mitch! My dad took the money, and immediately after we entered the park we went to lost and found. Dad told the stunned employee that he had found that roll of money on the street, and thought that it might belong to a little kid. The employee looked at my dad in amazement; his eyes became as round as quarters.
"Sir, I have never seen anyone as honest as you! I must reward you for something as kind hearted as this!" He reached into the shiny cashier box and handed my dad five front of the line passes, one for everyone in my family, valid for the whole day! Kindness is never unrewarded; I love the spirit that Christmas brings!
