"Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle..."

The thing I love most about Christmas is that, for a few short weeks, the spirit of giving happens (like it should the entire year.) Today my favorite 30-something co-worker, AJ, called me as we both drove (separately) to work. She said she couldn't sleep because she found out yesterday that her nieces and nephews didn't have ONE gift for Christmas. AJ is married to a really nice guy (who happens to be African-American) whose mother in Austin was/is a crackhead, so he was raised in foster care. His two sisters haven't fared as well as him, and both just moved from Austin to their town in hopes that he can help them. They have 5 children between the 2 of them, and live off of welfare. As of yesterday, neither sister had bought any presents for their children... When AJ found out, she relayed to me that the children (ranging in age from 1 - 12) were really good kids and it wasn't their fault. And since we are within 2 days of Christmas, all of the programs with Salvation Army and others had already given out their assigned gifts. AJ and I have no extra money at this time of year but knew we could figure something out. So, we got to work and starting calling my 2 favorite advertising clients to tell them some of the story and see if they would be willing to donate something, and anything would help. Our vision was one present per child. Well, both businesses surpassed our expectations, with one donating a tree with gifts for each child, and the other business donated $300 worth of merchandise, so these kids WILL have a real Christmas. I do believe that these acts of kindness could change the course of these children's lives...

as hope comes bubbling up.