Make Someone Happy

Tis the season to be busy. Last night we still did not have all the inside Christmas lights up, and my husband promised to put them up when he brought the boys home from club practice. So the lump of lights sat on the dining room table. I went into my college son's room and asked him to please at least put the Christmas lights up over the dining room hutch. He replied with his consistent stalling and avoidance strategy, "What?" I said just put the lights up. But then when he was finished, I did not like the way they hung over the side and did not like the garland he used, so told him he had to do it over. He said, "What?" I explained this was a tedious and particular chore and it is going to take time and effort, so just accept that and do it. 10 minutes later he said. "Ok, is that good enough?" I then asked him if that is how he wanted to do these lights...just good enough. Is that really the person he wants to be, good enough? So stop complaining and do the lights right. An hour and a half later the house was twinkling with many tiny white lights. Everything looked beautiful, really!  I told him how pretty everything looked, but he knew it. Then my husband came home at 9:30, tired, and expecting to hang lights and sees they are already done. He proclaims, "Oh! Nice! The lights are done!" Luke, the one son who also just came home was looking forward to a bowl of lucky charms, when he opened the refrigerator, he saw there was no milk. So he asked Mikey, the son who just put up all the lights, "Could you please go get milk?" Mikey again replied "What?"  He did not feel like one bit like going to the store to get milk. But he did. Luke had his cereal. I said to Mikey, "Just think. Tonight you made 3 people happy. Me. Dad. And your brother. By any ones standards, that is a successful night. Thank you. " And in light of current events, a chance to make someone happy may be the last chance you'll ever get.