The Burst into Tears Gift

My husband travels for work a lot.  For anyone who does not travel for work I am here to tell you it does not matter where you go, it is not glamorous or all that fun.  Work is work and being away from home, no matter how nice the hotel is not always fun.

I was just glad that Russ made it home from Chicago in time for Christmas after a long work of week and tough weather travel.  When he put his suitcase down in our bedroom our sweet labradoodle Shay-shay stuck her nose in the corner and tried to retrieve something from inside.  Russ stopped her and pulled four nicely wrapped packages from the suitcase.

“My Kimpton hotel in Chicago gave me these gifts, one for each of us as well as Shay-Shay,” he told me.  At first I thought they were the kind of gift a business might give each of their customers, but then Russ continued.  “They had them in my room as I checked in.  The note read, ‘Welcome back Mr. Lange.  We hope you are having a holly jolly holiday season!  We know it must be rough traveling around the holidays. So we wanted to do a little something special from our family to yours to say, “thank you” for your loyalty.  We did a little sleuthing and hope we found something for everyone.  We look forward to seeing you in 2013!  Sincerely, Erica, Katie and the Hotel Allegro Team.’”

“Should we open them now?” Russ asks.  “No, let’s just put them under the tree.”  So this morning as we were opening our family gifts, Russ gives Shay-shay her gift from the Hotel Allegro.  Inside a small box were a number of fancy dog treats and Christmas rawhides which Shay found irresistible.  “That was awfully sweet,” I said.

Carter then opened her present from the hotel, a picture frame with a picture of Shay in it that they must have found on one of our Facebook pages.  “Wow, that is impressive,” I said.  “Russ, not only do they know you have a wife, daughter and dog, they really went to a lot of trouble to get things that have something to do with us.”

My curiosity was up so I opened my little box, which had two pieces of paper and a handful of tiny Italian candies in it.  I opened the first paper that read,  “Dear Dana, We saw how much this means to you…Please let us know if we can ever help out!  Love, Katie, Erica & Gavin (&Santa) Hotel Allegro Chicago” I unfolded the second piece of paper, a donation acknowledgement from the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina for $20.00.

I burst into tears.  Three people I had never met, whose job it is to make sure their customers love them, had gone to the trouble to learn about me and find the perfect gift.  And that it was.  I can’t explain why I had such a strong and immediate reaction, but I did.

So tonight when my cousin Mark asked me what my favorite gift this year was I told him it was this one. It was a gift from some strangers to help feed some other people I will never meet, but to me it was the gift of the year.