A Different Christmas

It was almost Christmas, but Diego wasn’t feeling very excited. This was the firstChristmas since his parents got divorced. And nothing felt the same. He and his brother,Samuel, wouldn’t even get to see Mom this Christmas.

“Everything’s different,”Diego said to Dad.

“I know.”Dad’s eyes were sad.“Sometimes things change before they get better.”He was quiet for a bit, then smiled.“Christmas will be different this year, but that doesn’t mean we won’t have some good times. We’ll still be celebrating the birth of the Savior.”

Diego nodded. It would be hard not seeing Mom, but maybe Christmas could still be good, just as Dad said. Diego wanted to help make this Christmas a happy one.

He went to his room to think. Sometimes for Christmas they did a family service project. What could they do this year?

Diego looked around his room. He saw a toy car he didn’t play with anymore. He picked it up and spun(使快速旋转) the wheels. It was still really good. Maybe he and Dad and Samuel could give some toys to kids who didn’t have any! He found a few other toys and put them in a bag with the car.

When Diego finished, he took the bag to Samuel’s room.“Can I help you clean your room?” he asked. “It’s a surprise for Dad.”

Samuel looked up from the picture he was drawing. “Sure.”

The boys worked together to clean Samuel’s room. Diego told him about the plan.They found a few toys that Samuel didn’t play with and added them to the bag.

When they were done, they carried the bag downstairs.“Dad,”Diego said,“we found some toys we don’t play with anymore. Can we give them to kids who don’t have any toys?”

Dad looked surprised and happy.“That’s a great idea! Let’s take them to the homeless shelter this afternoon.”

Visiting the shelter was fun. Diego and Samuel got to play with some of the kids whileDad talked to the grown-ups.

I was a single parent of four small children, working at a minimum-wage job. Money was always tight. It was Christmas time, and the big excitement for the kids was the fun of Christmas shopping at the mall. I had saved $120 for presents to be shared by all five of us.

The big day arrived and we started out early. I gave each of the four kids a twenty-dollar bill and reminded them to look for gifts about four dollars each. Then everyone scattered. We had two hours to shop; then we would meet back at the “Santa’s workshop” display.

Back in the car driving home, everyone was in high Christmas spirits, laughing and teasing each other with clues about what they had bought. My younger daughter, Ginger, who was about eight years old, was unusually quiet. I noted she had only one small, flat bag with her after her shopping. I could see enough through the plastic bag to tell that she had bought candy bars—fifty-cent candy bars! I was so angry. What did you do with that twenty dollar bill I gave you? I wanted to yell at her, but I didn’t say anything until we got home. I called her into my bedroom and asked her what she had done with the money. This is what she told me:

“I was looking around, thinking of what to buy, and I stopped to read the little cards on one of the Salvation Army’s ‘Giving Trees’. One of the cards was for a little girl four years old, and all she wanted for Christmas was a doll with clothes and a hairbrush. So, I took the card off the tree and bought the doll and the hairbrush for her and took it to the Salvation Ar-my booth.”

“I only had enough money left to buy candy bars for us,” Ginger continued. “But we have so much and she doesn’t have anything.”

I was deeply moved by Ginger’s unexpected act of kindness.

We determined to fulfill the wishes of the little girl on the Salvation Army’s “Giving Tree”.

With the widespread use of technologies like GPS and Internet­connected cameras，parents can now keep an eye on their children wherever they are.

The combination of high­tech tools and highly­protective parents has set off the creation of a GPS­equipped wristwatch that allows parents to listen in real time to what their children are doing.The device has caused complaints from teachers since some parents began equipping their children with the watch so they can listen in on what happens at school.

A teacher surnamed You at a well­known primary school in Pudong New Area discovered someone was eavesdropping(偷听) on her lessons after a parent of one of her students posted something she said online while class was still on.You soon found out the parent had given her child a watch that could send out the sounds in the classroom to her mobile phone.Soon，other parents decided to equip their own children with the devices.

You was annoyed to find out her students’ parents were spying on her.It made her feel as if they distrusted her.After You told her fellow teachers what had happened，they discovered that some of their students were also wearing the watches.