Noel, Noel...Noel, NOEL

I hope I can do this story justice. I am always more confident that things will come off as funny if I am staring at you while I say them...because then you have to laugh, and I feel successful. It's rough in the blogging world, refreshing the page like a hundred times in the first minute to see if any positive affirmations have made their way into the comment section, but I think you will all appreciate this story. Some of you may have heard it, so I will try to make it even better this time.

RECENTLY, while at Target, I was standing in the wrapping paper/bow/Christmas card isle. A pair of shoppers joined me in the isle as I picked up various bows deciding just how many Benjamins I wanted to lay down at the store that day. The ladies that entered the isle were happily chattering, and before long, it was apparent that these two were a mother and daughter duo. The mother was likely 60-65 years old, leaving the daughter in the 40-45 year old range. The daughter needed to find a Christmas card, and the mother was trying to help.

The mother started, "This one is kind of cute."

The daughter replied, "No, no, I want one that says Happy Holidays, not Merry Christmas. I try to be politically correct. " (She was for serious when she said that too...so I bit my lip so that they wouldn't know I was a. listening, b. laughing, c. caring at all).

Then the mother said, " Oh okay, sorry I didn't realize that...(long pause)...Oh Noel, look at this one, it says Happy Holidays."

At this point, it was all I could do to hold back the laugh. My goodness, the daughter's name was NOEL, and she couldn't find it in her heart to get a Merry Christmas card, she was named after the holiday for goodness sake! But, I suppose we all have our particularities; the irony has stuck with me though.

And for this reason, I do not think I shall name my children after any holiday...ever.