At age 8, the writer joined a class Christmas exchange but came from a family that<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cwas so poor we couldn\u2019t afford a gift.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n They wrapped one of their dad\u2019s old books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their classmate had given them \u201cthe latest Barbie\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n and cried when she saw the mismatched gift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next day, the girl\u2019s mother arrived at school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of scolding, she smiled and handed the writer a bag containing<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cthe Barbie\u2019s matching car, a Ken doll, and brand-new holiday clothes.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n She then invited both girls to lunch, which was \u201cmy first time ever in a restaurant.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The girls became friends and stayed close into adulthood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The writer says \u201cthat mother\u2019s kindness was the first time I truly felt the magic of Christmas.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Now financially stable, they help a child in need every holiday season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 1. A Gift Exchange Gone Wrong At age 8, the writer joined a class Christmas exchange but came from a family that \u201cwas so poor we couldn\u2019t afford a gift.\u201d They wrapped one of their dad\u2019s old books. Their classmate had given them \u201cthe latest Barbie\u201d and cried when she saw the mismatched gift. 2. An…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9068,"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9066\/revisions\/9068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horizonvibe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}2. An Unexpected Visit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
3. A First-Ever Treat<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
4. Lasting Christmas Kindness<\/h2>\n\n\n\n