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In life there are gifts that are missed and appreciated by the people who receive them with affection, generating much happiness to some, while others do not appreciate a gift and there are those who upon receiving a donation arouse envy among their relatives.

I am very grateful to God for giving me life, a mother and a family like the one I have.

When I was very little, my mother taught us that when someone gave us a gift, no matter how insignificant, we should accept it with love. Because it was not the gift that was valuable, but the gesture of the person who gave it.  My siblings and I learned that lesson and passed it on to our children.

My sister Aurora and I, when we were little, lived in abject poverty with our siblings and our mother. Aurora was ten years old and I was nine, even at that age we had no dolls to play with.  We played with little stones, we wrapped them in cloths that we used as blankets and they were our daughters.  At that time my brother Hernán started working in a store that sold toys and hardware. 

My mother had a nativity scene.  The first days of December we decorated it in the living room. That month Hernán told us:

 "on the 24th at night the baby Jesus will visit you with his gifts, write letters asking for the ones you want".

Immediately we made them, each one asked to bring us a doll. Then we placed them in the nativity scene

 In the evening of that day we went to sleep after dinner. A few minutes later we woke up and ran to the nativity scene. There were 2 big boxes decorated with wrapping paper. Our hearts were racing like the minute hand of the clock.  When we opened those gifts we cried with joy, for the first time we could caress a doll, and kiss it. At that moment we tasted the nectar of happiness. 


![](https://images.ecency.com/DQmNrHqvbEmGXQfDwqjPY5gUzD28cjnXfA4AwkVEPQt9vQg/photo_2022_12_13_11_59_19.jpg)
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On the other hand, there are people who do not appreciate a gift.  Once when I worked at the Rectorate I went to visit a friend named Maria Luisa in her office, that day was her birthday, when I entered the office I saw her throwing a gift to the wastebasket, I asked her: 
"Why are you doing that?" she answered me: 
 "Doris gave me a pair of pants, but I didn't like it, that's why I threw it away".

At that moment I was speechless, for me that was against my principles. In my wallet I was carrying a pair of earrings as a gift, that action of hers disappointed me and I didn't give it to her, not because she didn't deserve it but because I was afraid that they would end up like the pants, then I reacted and told her:


"On this special day I came to share some time with you".
 I was with her, we talked, she gave me some pastries and a snack, we shared there until it was time to leave. Then we said goodbye


In contrast to this situation.  I had another experience with a relative of my father's named Domingo.  He lived with his wife and four children.  Since they got married they set up in an annex of their house a large Abasto and with that income, they supported their family.  Then they built another house as an asset, which would later generate more income by renting it out. 

As the years went by, the four children got married and became independent, each one of them had a house of their own.  As they had already fulfilled their mission with their children, they removed the grocery store because the man got sick and the woman could not take care of him alone. They both stayed living on their savings and pension, because the house that the tenants rented was vacated. 

After several years, the youngest daughter was left alone with two younger children.  Her husband divorced her and lost the house, because he mortgaged it to a financial entity and never released it.  The Entity had her evicted. Because he left the country and she had no economic resources to assume the debt. 

The father, seeing his daughter's situation, gave her the house he was renting. That was enough to create a rift between the siblings to the point that all three of them became angry with their father.  They did not even go to his funeral when he died.

Contrary to the situation experienced by this family.  There are gifts that bring you happiness, as in the case of the dolls that the baby Jesus brought to my sister and me. This gesture from my brother to us united our family and became a tradition.  


Nowadays in our homes on Christmas Eve we place the gifts of all those present in the manger and when the baby Jesus is born we all run to the nativity scene and take our gifts with great joy and happiness.  At that moment we evoke the memory of our brother Hernan, my mother and all our relatives who passed to another dimension.



This is a non-fiction story
I hope you like it
the drawings are by me
Use Deepl translator

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