I will never forget the year when I was about twelve years old. My mother told us that we would not be 1Christmas gifts because there was not enough money. I felt sad and thought, “What would I say when the other kids asked what I'd 2?” Just when I started to 3 that there would not be a Christmas that year, three women4at our house with gifts for all of us. For me they brought a doll. I felt such a sense of 5, that I would no longer have to be embarrassed when I returned to school. I wasn't6somebody had thought7of me to bring me a gift.
Years later, when I stood in the kitchen of my new house, thinking how I wanted to make my 8 Christmas there special and memorable, I9remembered the women's visit. I decided that I wanted to create that same feeling of10for as many children as I could possibly reach.
So I11 a plan and gathered forty people from my company to help. We gathered about 125 homeless children at the Christmas party. For every child, we wrapped (包裹) colorful packages filled with toys, clothes, and school supplies, 12with a child's name. We wanted all of them to know they were13Before I called out their names and handed, them their gifts, I14them that they couldn't open their presents15every child had come forward. Finally the 16they had been waiting for came as I called out, "One, two, three. Open your presents!" As the children opened their packages, their faces lightened and their bright smiles17, up the room. The18in the room was obvious, and19wasn't just about toys. It was a feeling — the feeling I knew 20that Christmas so long ago when the women came to visit. I wasn't forgotten. Somebody thought of me. I matter.
