Meet Alan

Alan is a seven-year-old boy that wears a size 6x, likes Tonka trucks, and Musical toys. I came across Alan at the mall one evening on a solo trip there. Out of all the kids, he's the one that caught my eye.

In my mind, Alan is Asian and chubby; probably pretty smart. Like you, I don't know Alan. If one day our paths cross, we'll walk by one another not knowing that our lives had intersected once before on the road leading to the Salvation Army's Giving Christmas Tree.

That this little card is my only tangible connection to Alan doesn't diminish the pleasure it gives me to have picked him.

Growing up, my mom would take a couple of names from the Christmas tree at church so we could help out a family in need. It's something that I remember fondly and look forward to each year.

In the past, the mom's group I belong to adopts a family. Instead we went with a "Keeping Kids Warm this Winter" theme and collected blankets, sleepers, hats, booties for kids of all ages. As usual, we had a little shindig yesterday morning to gather everything together. As much as I liked doing it, it didn't give anything for J to do like in years past where at least one of the families had a kid his age to whom he could get something. Giving away pajamas or sweaters to random kids doesn't affect him in any way, shape. or form. He cares nothing about pajamas or sweaters. He does, however, care about toys.

So I told him about Alan. I would be fibbing just a little if I said he was completely thrilled about the prospect. But not all hope was lost. During the purging of his mostly Happy-Meal-toy bin, he decided that Alan would be a good recipient for the ones he didn't want {sigh}. Once at Target he helped search for the items we did want for him -- Alan that is -- though I think it was more to be done with it and head over to the Toy Story aisle where he could salivate over stuff he wanted.

He managed to find something for M as well and then lent his assistance in choosing a bag for Alan's gift while he engaged me in an in-depth conversation about earthquakes. Before leaving we stopped at the snow globe area where he played for a bit.

Next up was the Dollar Store where he finally got something for himself: A new writing pad.

And so it turned out to be a nice evening after all.

Alan got his toys. J got his writing pad and a milk shake and fries at Mickey D's for being a good sport. And I got to make a deposit into the memory bank of a little boy that hopefully one day, when he's a man and has his own kids, will frequent often to make withdrawals from.