This past year had seen its fair share of difficult days. At the start it felt like the end of the year was forever and a day beyond a point where time stood still and then suddenly, wham, it was here.

Provided by the city, trees strung with white lights lined many of the streets. A beautiful sight to behold with the silent snowfall dancing on Jack Frost’s sigh. Even though they had been up for two weeks, Hannah found herself pausing at the corner of the intersection with a peaceful smile lifting the corner of her lips.

When she was younger the whole family would get together and after Christmas Eve’s dinner all the adults would load the kids up in the cars and drive around the city to see all the lights lit up; it was a magical experience and one she often thought about this time of year.

Black Friday had come and gone but the seemingly daily sales saw no end. Night time was still just as busy with civilians out until shops turned their open lights off and turned the sign on their doors over to CLOSED.Thankfully she had today off and no appointments scheduled until after New Years which meant she finally had an opportunity to get a few gifts for the two foster children she had been assigned to for her church's Secret Stanta.

When the crosswalk light changed signals and began beeping from across the street Hannah stuck the wish-list note card she had been looking at when she got off the bus back into pocket and proceeded to the other side.

Each year her church did a Secret Santa event of some sort, last year it was for the refugee families staying with some of the members in the congregation. One family was from Somalia, they had seven kids ranging from nine months old to thirteen years old. Quite the handful but still fairly respectful of adults. Their father was, and still is, a hard working man and was immediately able to find employment while his wife took English classes alongside her kids.

They were one of the lucky ones where things just kind of fell into place. Just three months ago they finally put a down payment on their first home. It was a bit of a fixer upper but there were plenty of people around the church that were more than willing to offer a helping hand.

This year was no different as individuals flocked towards the fake tree after service, each picking one to two paper snowflakes with a child's name and a wish written on one of the sides.

Thankful for her job at the Cafe, owned by her boyfriend's family, Hannah had been one of the few who took two; siblings in fact. The youngest, an eleven year old boy named Devin, wanted either a soccer ball or a football; seemed to have a love for sports. While his older brother James, age fifteen, wanted some art supplies.

Armed with about twenty dollars for each kid Hannah set her sights on the Michaels craft store two blocks away. With the thirty percent off all art supplies coupon on her mobile app and fifty percent off of one item she held little doubt that she’d be able to get several good deals, stocking stuffers included. Hopefully whatever she got would brighten their holidays even if it is only by a little bit.