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After a tiring day of work as a construction day laborer, a weary Aurelio was looking forward to seeing his wife, Maria, and their five children in their small, cramped apartment in downtown Los Angeles. But the sight that greeted him when the door opened made his eyes pop with confusion, and later made his heart swell with gratitude: the joyful faces of his entire family surrounded by an avalanche of gifts in their tiny living room, all thanks to Adopt-A-Family. "I was incredulous. I knew they said they were going to help us, but we didn't know they were going to give us so much," Aurelio (last name withheld by request) said later. "We just thank God that it was true," he told The Tidings, newspaper of the Los Angeles Archdiocese. Adopt-A-Family is a Los Angeles archdiocesan outreach program coordinated by the Mission Office that provides gifts of household essentials and longed-for presents to hundreds of struggling local families with children every December. "My kids were so happy to receive so many presents, everything they had asked for," continued Aurelio, a native of Mexico. "I've lived here in the U.S. for almost 15 years and I had never experienced anything like this. We are ending this year on a positive note. Thank you to everyone who made this a happy Christmas for us." This is the best of what Christmas can be. We all need to make a difference in our part of the world. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

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