Christmas Miracles

I've had my very own Christmas Miracles between last night and this morning, and thought I'd share: 1. Last night, I was looking for a new Bear for Paige. She lost her Bear (yes, it does need to be capitalized -- that's his name) over Thanksgiving vacation, and I was convinced my mom's dogs had gotten him and taken him out to the compost pile, where he was buried in snow. Well, about 6 months ago I was at Target and ALMOST got another Bear for Kimball, who was loving Paige's, but decided it wasn't nearly close enough to his birthday to justify it. It ended up working out just fine, because we found a really fun nesting/stacking/jingle bell ball instead. Anyway, I went to Target, and THEY CHANGED BEAR. He's nowhere near as cute as he was, he's short and fat, and he's just not the same. So, that idea was out. There is also a dearth of Mint M&Ms in the land -- from Orem to Springville, they are not to be found. So, I sadly purchased my two enormous packages of wipes and left the store -- only to discover that I didn't have my keys. Anywhere. The last time I lost my keys (although, to be honest, it wasn't my fault that time -- Stewart had clipped them to the cart and didn't tell me until we'd returned it and someone else picked it up) it took THIRTY MINUTES with three small children before the keys were returned. And this time it was 10:30 at night, and Joel was probably already in bed, and no one could come rescue me, and I was starting to freak out when I took a deep breath and decided to retrace my steps. I ended up going straight to the Customer Service desk to drop off my wipes (because they were HUGE and I didn't want to lug them around while I looked), and the guy there asked me what kind of car keys I had. It took me a minute to answer, because for the first time I had a glimmer of hope -- could it be that someone had already returned them? I said, "I have a Dodge Durango," and by the time I said "... and a Springville Library card" he'd already handed me my very own keys! HURRAY! (And, even though they're heavy, Target wipes are TOTALLY the best!) 2. While I was gone last night, the Young Women, specifically the Mia Maids, delivered some cookies JUST TO ME. They had chosen eight women in the ward to embody the Values, and they thought I represented Divine Nature because I smile a lot. It was so special to me -- and is helping me to have more smiles. :) 3. This morning we found Paige's Bear!!! It had been put into a Walmart bag with her Snow White dress (that we took for some sewing advice from my mom and still need to fix), which I finally got out this morning to look at. HURRAY!!!