The Christmas Spirit.

I love Christmas, I really do.  I love the tree, the twinkling lights, the holiday movies, hot chocolate by the fire place, and even the constant Christmas music.  I just love the whole magical feeling that is in the air during this time of year.

But sadly, and with no particular reason, for the past few years I havn't felt that warm feeling of Christmas.  Maybe my mind thinks i'm too old or maybe I'm just turning into some old man who yells at anyone who sings Christmas songs. (you know, besides the man part.)  Because I could totally see myself turning into this...

 (And I apologize for this cat picture, I know its going around   everywhere lately but i laughed way hard when I saw it.)

But tonight, for the first time, I got that tingly, happy, warm, Christmas feeling again!

So you know those annoying people who stand in front of Wal-Mart ringing bells and yelling Merry Christmas at you in order to trick you into donating your hard earned cash?  Well I became one of them tonight.  Yes I did it all.  I pasted on a smile, rang the bell, and shouted a myriad of season's greetings at the top of my lungs.  I surprised one lady so bad on her way out of the automatic doors that I wouldn't doubt if she had reoccurring PTSD every time someone said "Merry Christmas" to her.  Arn't I awesome. :)

We did that for about the first 15 minutes.  And I admit it was pretty fun.  But than it happened.  An angel from the other entrance came our way.  It was a helper from the shift before us with a Ukulele, volunteering to play and sing with our group for another hour.  I swear he had a heavenly light around him and I could have kissed right there in the Wal-Mart parking lot.  I didn't, even though he was quite attractive, and for the rest of the hour and a half we played the ukulele and sang our hearts out to Christmas tunes.  (We were so good that we even attracted quite a crowd at some points.  I honestly thought that the security would come out and ask us to break it up because we were causing traffic jams and risking possible accidents.)

Honestly, I have never been so happy while being so cold!  And the best part is, we were doing all of this while volunteering and serving others.  This is what Christmas is all about.  Coming together with complete strangers, being completely happy, having the time of our lives, and doing Christ-like acts.  Tonight this is what finally gave me that amazing feeling of joy and contentment.  All simply within a Wal-Mart parking lot...