The past few years, Christmas has become less and less important to me. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been home to spend it with my family in years or that I haven’t decorated in just as long, but I’ve been a real scrooge the last few years. Sure, I get a ton of joy out of finding amazing gifts for family and friends, but that’s really been the only part of the holidays I’ve enjoyed, the rest hasn’t seemed that important. But today something happened to make me realize just how great the holidays can be.

About a month ago, I and some fellow posters from the View Askew message board, were given the opportunity to play poker with Kevin Smith. The catch: we had to buy $200 worth of merchandise from his store, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. Though I like toys more than the average grown adult, most of them were ones that I didn’t need or want. So what is a girl to do with a bunch of toys and no children? Well, this girl chose to donate them to Toys for Tots, a charitable organization raises money and collects toys to make Christmas better for those less fortunate.

This year, the Fort Irwin Fire Department is running the toy drive for Fort Irwin. To make it easier to donate, they decided to spend every Tuesday this month standing at the main gate collecting them from people as they came on post. So last night, I bagged up the toys and threw in the back seat of my car. No big deal. It took me five minutes.

At least it seemed like no big deal. And it wasn’t until I got to the gate this morning, where members of the fire department stood. And with them was Santa Clause. I’ve never seen so many people smile so big as when I rolled down my window, looked at them and said, “I have two big bags full of toys in the backseat of my car and they are for you guys.” You could just feel how grateful they were for the donation, and right then I realized that because of these toys, a lot of local kids were going to have a better Christmas than they would’ve without my donation. It may have seemed like no big deal to me, but it was to those firemen and will be to those kids. And knowing I’ve made it possible for others to have a great Christmas has really made the holidays seem brighter to me.

I will say, though, that I didn’t do this alone. So thank you to Adam, who agave me some of his extra toys to give. Adam, I wish I had taken a picture of how happy those men and women were to see those bags. I don’t have the words to describe their smiles and you were a part of that. So thank you.