Have you ever heard a story that you just can't stop thinking about?

A story so wild that you remember exactly where you were when you first heard it.

For me, that happened almost five years ago.

It was a hot summer day and I was at the beach with my friend Amber, an old college

classmate that I hadn't hung out within nearly a decade. We were slung over foam noodles,

up to our necks in the Atlantic Ocean, catching up on work and life.

And at that very time, my life was very different from Amber's.

I was overworked, underpaid, living in a tiny but very expensive New York apartment with two roommates.

Amber, on the other hand, seemed remarkably settled.

She had a great career in marketing, a husband, and a gorgeous apartment in Brooklyn.

And that day in the ocean, just as I was thinking,

God damn it! How does she have it so figured out?

Amber turned to me and said,

I have this crazy story to tell you.

And I just remember you just being, like your jaw was on the floor.

What Amber told me practically knocked me over.

It blew up the image I had of her and her idyllic life.

And that story started in 2015 with a simple gift.

Amber was spending Christmas with her husband and his family in upstate New York.

The way she describes it, it seems like something from a lifetime movie.

The whole family was gathered around a sparkling, perfectly decorated evergreen tree.

Before them, a sea of presents.

...