It was about 1:30 in the afternoon and my wife called, “Guess what just happened?” in a partly excited voice but not obviously happy, at least not initially. I figured she got rear-ended, my kids broke her phone, she ran out of gas… who knows. It’s the pessimist in me.
She then proceeded to tell me how a guy just walked right up to her (from behind), handed her a $100 bill, said “Merry Christmas,” and walked away. She was partly stunned and actually tried to give it back–she’s a bit of a dork at times–and then realized what just happened. I thought that was pretty cool as we’ve only ever heard about this on the news. Apparently Santa does exist.
Anyway, she then proceeded to tell me how she wasn’t going to keep the money and, instead, “pay it forward” which is just like her. I tried to convince her that if she gave ME the money that was essentially the same thing especially since I was probably going to hit her up for money when she got home. 😉 That didn’t work.
More importantly, however, was that while it didn’t seem to cross her mind at all my immediate and bigger concern was how easy it was for somebody to sneak up on her. If the situation were any different–maybe at night or a different location–the scenario could have been totally different. I didn’t say anything to her yet because I didn’t want to spoil her happy experience but she’s not super-vigilant when it comes to these things. Granted, it’s not like I’ve got my eyes-peeled 24/7 either. And, honestly, most of us COULD be ambushed rather easily.
Besides herself she happened to have our kids in the car (as well as our 2 year old nephew) so that always complicates things. Ultimately, it was a good experience and one I’m sure my wife will happily share this holiday season. I’m just glad it was a good experience. Now if I can just figure out how to get her to “pay it forward” to me… I’m still working on that one.
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