...because it was a day and a night in which you were both happy, and aware that you were happy, and those are nights to treasure.
You left work early for coffee with Matt, who is leaving and who you will miss terribly (a fact that you realize more and more significantly as days go by). Chatting with him in the Starbucks line reminded you, subliminally but poignantly, how friends can be found in the unlikeliest of places and circumstances.
You drank your coffee and called your parents on the drive home. Hearing their voices makes the drive go faster than even the prettiest music. You're the kind of girl who saves voicemails from her loved ones, just so she can replay them when she needs to hear them, and that's a beautiful thing, especially when those loved ones are gone.
You met Kels for a margarita and a life catch-up, and remembered all over again...like you always do on nights like this...just how lucky you are to have her as a friend. She is the NICEST. You laugh like lunatics, you can be your little-bit-of-a-bitch self, and you have over a decade of history behind every sentence. You left your phone in your purse, and the Snapchat, the Facebook notification and the text all waited just fine. And your night? It was richer and better and more focused for having the phone put away. Do that more often, girl. Don't forget to be present.
Target was manic, but you only had one cranky moment, privately muttered in the checkout line to yourself (and your Snapchat story, oops). And the elderly man alone in the gift wrap aisle? Remember him. Remember his care in picking out Disney princess wrapping paper to perfectly match the two costume dresses in his cart. You thought twice about commenting on it, wondering if you should just hurry to pick out your own wrap, but you did.
And watching his face light up and listening to him tell you his story...two grand-nieces who just turned three, and getting them the exact same dress so they would be equal, because he loves them equally? That was a light-up-your-heart kind of moment that brought tears to that weird spot in the back of your throat. Remember that...the happiness of the smallest connection. Remember seeing the little bit of beauty and true, deep love that sparks in the least expected places in the world. (Remember how glad you were to have asked, in hindsight. You are a good person, even when you don't always think you are.)
You literally left Target skipping behind your cart like a child and humming "Let it Snow," because you were that incandescently delighted with life. That's what this season is about. Remember this and be happy.