On My 10th Day of Pre-Christmas

Oh, gosh, we're almost at the end of this thing!! Remind me NOT to do this again NEXT year!! My brain HURTS!! To recap, we have My 1st Day of Pre-Christmas, My 2nd Day of Pre-Christmas, My 3rd Day of Pre-Christmas, , My 4th Day of Pre-Christmas, My 5th Day of Pre-Christmas, My 6th Day of Pre-Christmas, My 7th Day of Pre-Christmas, My 8th Day of Pre-Christmas, and My 9th Day of Pre-Christmas.

On My 10th Day of Pre-Christmas, my community gave to me,
10 gestures of goodwill (or close to 10)
...9 hours of volunteer work
......8 hours of pole-vaulting kitties
.........7 hoards of humbugs
............6 pesky telemarketing calls
...............5 HOURS OF TREE DECORATING
..................a 4 dollar Charlie Brown tree
.....................3 truckloads of food
........................2 pooped people with tired bodies
...........................and a brand new king size bed.

Now, I realize that there was a bit of negative vibes during some of the pre-Christmas days,and some of those negative vibes will continue to exist throughout the year, but today I encountered many individuals who were in the holiday spirit (I also encountered some real ding-dongs, and you'll be sure to pick those out I am sure!). I think I might be able to get 10 things from these pickings, but we'll just have to see now won't we?

Some of the nice things:
The polite store clerks, who are still friendly even though they must surely be tired by now.

The many happy people wandering around the stores in their Santa and elf hats (but boy do they look at you funny when you call them an elf! *hey, I'm not the one wearing an elf hat*).

While at McDonald's, I was trying to release 2 little ketchup cups from the dispenser that didn't want to dispense. Out of nowhere, the gruff looking man beside me handed me 2 cups from the dispenser that was closer to him. No smile or anything, but he did something nice.....then he proceeded to have the same trouble for his own cups.

While at the card store, this lady and I had been chatting while waiting in the seemingly long lineup at the cash. We finally arrived at separate checkouts, and did our business. As she left the store, she silently wished me a Merry Christmas. YES! No Happy Holidays. No Season's Greetings! No politically correct bool-kaka! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! *sigh*

I was purchasing some cute little plates that were marked down. Real cheap but cute....with Santa..... and elves.....and candy canes. When I got to the cash, the biggest plate had no price tag, and the clerk didn't feel like going to hunt down the correct price, so she rang it up at 84 cents...the same price as the tiny little plates, and said Merry Christmas!

Some of the dingdong things:
Today was garbage pickup day, and it was also windy outside. We noticed that our green recycle can had been blown into the street, about 6 feet from the curb. We also saw the garbage truck approaching to collect the remainder of the recycle stuff. We figured that when the truck arrived, the fellow would move the can out of the road, but NO WAY! The truck drove right up beside the thing, the guy got out to do his job, then he got back on the truck and drove away, leaving the container in the road! DUH!

The finger fight that My Sweetie got into at the mall (I wasn't there for that one, thankfully). There is an awkwardly setup stopping arrangement at the mall, where one direction has a stop sign but the opposite side does not. My Sweetie was on the side that did not have a stop sign, and the truck facing him had to stop, except that they rolled it.....just as My Sweetie was moving to turn. They could have collided. My Sweetie pointed a finger (not THE finger) at the sign. The truck pointed THE finger at My Sweetie. Then My Sweetie returned the favour. HO HO HO and take that!

And, as usual, we continue along the pre-Christmas journey, and my friends, sometimes that journey is just like a box of chocolates (and we all know how that one goes).

Merry Pre-Christmas!
Thanks to ma-petite-cousine for the cute picture.....I thought I'd use it here.