Christmas Blessings Basket

For my brother’s 50th birthday, my mother and I decided to give him a weekend away with his wife. We volunteered to watch his 10-year old son. 
They arrived in Atlantic City to a hotel decorated festively for the holiday. I picked up my nephew with some activities in mind for him and my almost-80-year old mother.
A local organization advertised a fundraiser with activities such as face-painting, decorating ornaments, hot dogs, snacks and raffle tickets.  Upon our arrival, I instructed my nephew to leave his tablet in the truck.  We were going to have some fun without electronics. 
We walked around for a bit asking him if he wanted to participate in some of the activities. No, face painting, no ornament making.
We sat down for a snack. I was rooting through my pocketbook to get out some money for him to put into the raffle boxes.  My nephew suddenly decided he was going out of the building to get his device.  I found myself storming out the doors after him, following him to a truck that looked like mine but wasn’t. 
I may have even said, “You’re lucky the owner didn’t come out and think you were breaking into their truck.”  I was baffled.
I brought him back into the building, made my mother get a hot dog and eat it there, (because we weren’t going to a fast food place afterwards).  
I walked around and deposited the tickets in the basket. The rest of the weekend went pretty smoothly. After a few hours without the electronics, he apologized to me, and we enjoyed an evening riding around looking at the lights and decorations.
About a week later, I received a phone call. I won a basket from the event.  A pink sweatshirt and hat in the basket.  
I decided that basket would be my blessings basket. I would have never put the entry in for that item if I had given my nephew the tickets. 
What turned out to be a problem, turned into a blessing. Now, I use my basket as a reminder of my daily blessings throughout the year. 
Moore writes from Villas.