Silver Bells

City sidewalks busy sidewalks
Dressed in holiday style
In the air
There's a feeling of Christmas

Children laughing
People passing
Meeting smile after smile
And on ev'ry street corner you'll hear

Silver bells silver bells
It's Christmas time in the city
Ring a ling hear them sing
Soon it will be Christmas day
Not only did we hear Silver Bells tonight, we got to ring them! (Well, red ones anyway.) Carter and I put on our Santa hats and did our annual bell-ringing stint for the Salvation Army.

When they called this year to have me sign up, the only time that coordinated in their schedule and ours was tonight and tomorrow night. Little did I know it would be the worse possible week for me to stand 2 hours at a time (lucky there's a bench there) and that Carter would have to ditch me after an hour so he could go caroling with the confirmation kids.

I still enjoyed having him with me for the first hour. It helps pass the time and people are always more willing to give when there's a kid ringing the bell. That's just how it works. We did pick the same store as last year because we don't have to stand completely outside, the shoppers are relatively nice and the guy who runs the store is an old friend of Jim's.

Despite the downturn in the economy, I observed that people still will give to someone who is even more in need. Whether it's the 50-dollar bill we saw one gentleman slip in (wow) or the 50 cents in nickels and pennies someone else dropped in the Red Kettle... It all adds up and we thanked each donor with equal enthusiasm.

Even though the second hour dragged a bit with Carter gone, I was glad he preferred to go caroling and didn't use bell-ringing as an excuse to get out of it. They had quite a group of confirmation kids go -- and some adults from the church, too. They delivered cookies and sang at several area nursing homes.

I love that the Red Kettle slogan is "Doing the Most Good." With such a little effort, we were able to spread some cheer tonight and hopefully do some good for those in need.

Ring a ling hear them sing
Soon it will be Christmas day...