A little screed on Christmas by a certain character in a certain Christmas tale:

[El_Johns]

1. Yesterday I had to go to the grocery store after work to pick up stuff for a party at my workplace

the next day. The store was packed, all the lines were super-long, going into the merchandise aisles. I thought "Oh, boy, everyone is going to be grumpy" but was very surprised to find everyone was tolerating it very well, talking to each other in line, letting people with only a few items cut in front, & the store had an elf with cookies walking around.

It turned out to be a very pleasant experience even though I was in line nearly half an hour, & made me wonder why we can't be this nice to each other all year round.