{"id":875,"date":"2025-12-10T00:28:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T00:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naekokozawa.online\/?p=875"},"modified":"2025-12-10T00:28:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T00:28:07","slug":"when-i-was-8-my-class-had-a-christmas-gift-exchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naekokozawa.online\/?p=875","title":{"rendered":"When I was 8, my class had a Christmas gift exchange."},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header\"><\/header>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2690\" src=\"https:\/\/akihideshikikawa.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2-9-240x300.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/akihideshikikawa.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2-9-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/akihideshikikawa.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2-9.jpg 512w\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p>My family was so poor we couldn\u2019t afford a gift, so I wrapped one of my dad\u2019s old books in reused gift paper and gave it to my classmate.<br \/>\nShe, in return, had given me the latest Barbie. When she saw my gift, she started crying.<\/p>\n<p>The next day, her mom came to school, looking serious and asking for me.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-1\">\n<div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1691648\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Suddenly, she started smiling when she saw me and her expression softened. She handed me a bag filled with gifts\u2014<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-6\">\n<div id=\"readupdatednews.com_responsive_2\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>the Barbie\u2019s matching car, a Ken doll, and brand-new holiday clothes. I was overwhelmed.<\/p>\n<p>It didn\u2019t end there. I froze in shock when she told me to wait after school because she was taking me and her daughter to lunch\u2014I couldn\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-9\">\n<div id=\"readupdatednews.com_responsive_1\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It was my first time ever in a restaurant.<\/p>\n<p>Her daughter, who had been upset before, was now kind to me, and we became close friends.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re still friends today, even at 24, despite living in different towns.<br \/>\nThat mother\u2019s kindness was the first time I truly felt the magic of Christmas<\/p>\n<p>. I\u2019ve never forgotten it. Now that my family is financially stable, I pay it forward every year by helping a child in need during the holidays.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My family was so poor we couldn\u2019t afford a gift, so I wrapped one of my dad\u2019s old books in reused gift paper and gave it to my classmate. She, &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naekokozawa.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naekokozawa.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naekokozawa.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naekokozawa.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naekokozawa.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=875"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/naekokozawa.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":876,"href":"https:\/\/naekokozawa.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875\/revisions\/876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naekokozawa.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naekokozawa.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naekokozawa.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}