HOUSTON - The holiday season tends to make people feel a little more giving and cooperative and two local women shared stories of positive outcomes for what could have been negative situations.

Rena Mixon, like many people today, has a busy schedule. She has a husband and two children, a job and extended family members that need attention as well.

After a busy day at work at the VA Hospital in Oxford, where she looked in on her uncle, Edward, to check on his needs, she headed home to Houston with a brief stop at Wal-Mart.

"I was tired and I had just got off work," Mixon said. "I just wanted to get the things we needed and get home."

As she unpacked her car at home, she realized she was missing her purse.

"I knew I had left it in the buggy at Wal-Mart," Mixon said. "It had my money, billfold, checks, identification - and Uncle Edward's money, too. I take care of his business for him and his was in cash in a ziplock bag. It could be clearly seen."

Hoping for the best, but fearing the worst, she called the store, only to get the best answer she could want.

"They said someone brought the buggy back in and returned my purse," Mixon said. "Nothing was touched, not one penny. All of it was turned back in."

Mixon does not know the person who returned her belongings, but she knows it was a special one.

"Nowadays, you would not expect that at all," Mixon said. "God is so good."

Brighten up the holidays

When the city government and citizens of Woodland decided to light up the town last year, they went all out with a display that drew visitors from far and wide. As they lights were taken down after the holidays, they noticed a couple of displays were missing.

"We kind of wrote it off," said Talitha Hudson. "We were like, 'Well, at least is was only one or two.'"

This year, as they were preparing to set the displays up again, they received the gift of lights returned to them.

Through a third party, the lights were returned to the town with no questions asked and no repercussions made.

"We really don't know where they were," Hudson said. "And it doesn't matter. I think it's the Christmas spirit and it's great that they so freely returned them."

Hudson said she believes the spirit of giving flow more abundantly due to the region in which we live.

"Really and truly, that would only happen here in the South," Hudson said. "People are more generous and kind and I think it's neat that there are still some people who are willing to do good things."