An Early Merry Christmas

I've always been a "gamer". I have 2 games that I like to play in my spare time (ha). Warcraft 3 and Halo 2. Dan and I had gotten an Xbox Live account when we got married so that we could play with some of our friends that lived across town without going out into the frigid Idaho weather. We kept it after we'd made some good friends and played with the same people for years. There were a few points where we either didn't have internet, or we were too busy to play and we'd forgotten we even had the account. After Karah was born (and she would only sleep if I was sitting up with her) I began to play again. It had been about a year since I'd last played. Online it is so easy to forget your standards because no one can see you. I decided that I wasn't going to let that affect me. I was a mother holding my child while I played, and I was going to act like it. No swearing, and only promoting niceness. I developed a close knit group of friends over the last year, even emailing and chatting with some outside of Halo. Once the economy got bad, and Dan's job became uncertain, we've been looking for areas to but back on our spending. My Xbox Live account fell into that category. I explained to my friends (not all of them were guys) that I probably wouldn't be back for a long time, if ever. My account was about to expire anyway, so we just let it. I got a few emails begging me to find someway to get back because everyone was now fighting and they all missed my "Mommy humor". I explained that until things got better for Dan's job, I wouldn't be able to. A few weeks later, I got a card in the mail, and part of it said this:

"When I heard that your account got cancelled, I rounded up some of the guys from the clan and asked them if they'd like to donate to me through Paypal to try and get you back online. Hott Karlz, Johnny2xs, and firecake were all for it! I went online and bid on a number of auctions on a year of Xbox Live for you and I ended up winning one! If you aren't on as much, we all understand, but at least you'll have it for a year and you can hop on whenever you have some spare time to relax. So Merry Christmas from all of us!" He went on to explain how to make a new account and then said this: "Merry Christmas again and I hope your whole family, Dan, you, Jayden, and Karah get to spend a lot of quality time together throughout the holidays! Thank you for always taking the time to go out of your way to care about people."

I had no idea that I meant enough to this group that they would pool in and get me back for a year! I cried when I read the letter, and it was just an all out awesome experience to realize I'd made a difference to people all over the world for sticking to my standards and reaching out to listen to people. This is a huge example to me that even though it may seem like no one is watching, someone always notices you. What they notice about you is what makes the difference.

Thank you, Johnny!! It really meant a lot!!