In the hustle and bustle you can forget what you even got

With Christmas just days away it's time to write a list of all the gifts you had planned to get yet hadn't gotten around to getting. Today I took my list and started on the long journey that I had ahead of me. I had so many stores to go to. They were located in three different towns. I had to plan a map of all the different places I had to go so I could do everything in order of where they were located. As the shopping began I would put each bag I had bought in the back of my van. Tucking it so hopefully no one would see it and break my window to steal it. It took me nearly five hours to check off everything on my list and finally make it home to start wrapping presents. I started with my teenage son's  video games from Game Stop. It was one of the first few places I went when I first started my journey. As I went through the bag of items I couldn't find the new eighty dollar controllers I had bought. I searched the bag three times and all around the table I was sitting at. Then I went out to my car and searched to see if it had fallen out of the bag. The employee must have forgotten to put it in the bag. So I called the store and the manager answered. She left me on hold while the employees searched all around the register but they said it wasn't at the store. I knew I paid for it and I told her I wasn't doing without what I paid for because her employee forgot to put it in the bag. She could hear the frustration in my voice. Without hesitation she told me to come back to the store and she would give me another one to replace it. I wasn't happy about having to drive back up there after just getting home but eighty dollars is a big chunk of money. After hanging up with the manager I started looking through the pile of other bags to see if I needed to hide anything before I left. And there tucked in between two fluffy plush toys for my granddaughters was the controllers I was looking for. I don't normally buy by my young grandaughters, who are still into dolls, a gift at Game Stop. But today I did and I hadn't even looked in that bag before calling the manager. I felt totally embarrassed. Now I had to call her back and apologize for being grouchy and admit that I just hadn't looked hard enough. I was so touched when it dawned on me that she was willing to replace them. I decided I would drive back up there and thank her in person for going above and beyond with a smile to make sure her customers were happy. It sure is rare to see these days. I decided to take her a box of chocolates to hopefully bring a little joy to her during this busy holiday season like the joy that she brought this grouchy old customer.