The Christmas Spirit

I think it would be an understatement to say that I love this time of year.  The weather is finally getting colder, the prospect of snow enters the mix (although, less so here in southern Indiana), then there's shopping, baking, decorating, and wrapping.  I love the excitement and anticipation of the holidays.  All of these things so far have been even better with Natalie in the house.  The magic of Christmas is, in a way, reborn.

So, you can imagine my excitement to spend last night visiting the Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo. It's a pretty big deal around here; the zoo is decked out in lights like you wouldn't believe.  And, of course, Santa and his reindeer are there!  And, I have it on good authority that the real Santa visited the zoo this year.  Sometimes he has to send a proxy.  I mean, can you blame the guy?  He's busy this time of year, and there are far too many zoos and malls around the world for him to be at all of them in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

But, my point in all of this is to highlight a brief moment that sums up everything wonderful about the holiday spirit, and goes a long way to restore my faith that the world is not made up of mostly scummy people.

As we were walking up to buy tickets to the zoo, we were approached by a middle-aged woman standing by herself.  Although the zoo is in a rough neighborhood, she appeared harmless, and most certainly was not panhandling (but don't you hesitate just a second longer when you have your kids with you?).  She asked if we were planning to buy tickets, and we said that we were.  She reached into her pocket and produced two zoo tickets, valid for last evening, and said, "Here, please take these.  They're free."  She pushed them towards me, and I asked her if we could pay her for them.  She insisted that she did not want any money for them, and said that her family could not come as planned.  Then, she said, "Merry Christmas," and walked away.

We were stunned.  A stranger offering her tickets, and wanting nothing in return.  What better sums up the spirit of Christmas than that?  I wish that, in the moment, I had better expressed our gratitude for her generosity, let her know that this was our daughter's first Festival of Lights, told her "Merry Christmas" in return rather than saying "thanks, you too."

So, to the warm and generous lady who made our great evening fantastic: Thank you, and a very Merry Christmas to you and your family.