Christmas Eve on Sesame Street

Here's a true story, those of you who know and love me have probably heard it before...and are thoroughly disgusted...those of you who don't know me...well, sit back and enjoy.

The year after I graduated from college was pretty tough. It was a huge change (though I was living just down the street from the college!), and a lot had been going on personally for me. We had lost some family members, others were ill, we had lost some good friends...it just wasn't the greatest year. I was emotional...trust me...you would have been too living with the lot I was. At any rate, I decided to brave the mall and do some Christmas shopping. I was looking forward to a nice time at home with my family. I was in this store that had all sorts of things a teacher could buy for bulletin boards and such...an educational store. I was walking around and I heard Sesame Street playing on the TV toward the back of the store. However, they were showing Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, a special I had loved as a child and hadn't seen in years. So I start watching, and Mr. Hooper shows up (he ran the little grocery store on Sesame Street but passed away and now hardly anyone knows who he is) on the screen and I start to remember the scenario. Bert and Ernie have pulled a "gift of the Magi." Bert wanted to get Ernie a soap dish for Rubber Duckie, so he traded Mr. Hooper his prized paperclip collection. Ernie wanted to get a cigar box for Bert to put his paperclip collection in, and bartered Rubber Duckie to Mr. Hooper for it. So as they give each other their gifts, and don't reveal that the things they were meant for actually paid for the gifts they exchanged, Mr. Hooper shows up and gives them their gifts which are the paperclip collection and Rubber Duckie. He talks of the true meaning of Christmas...yada yada yada. So here's where my story gets embarrassing...a clerk comes up to me...with a box of tissues...because I'm absolutely wailing crying in the back of this store. I'm not kidding...buckets. I couldn't even talk...I was mortified. I grabbed one of the videos off the rack and a handful of tissues and went to cash out. Poor thing, she couldn't wait to get rid of me. I heard some kid go "Is that lady alright?" And I just started laughing uncontrollably...they had to have thought I was completely insane...or completely high.

I still have the video and watch it every year...after all, I didn't just invest money in it...but pride and ego. I started watching it a few weeks ago with my little cousin Allie when she came to visit. I had to shut it off because I started welling up and I didn't want to freak her out by crying at Sesame Street!