Setting the Bar Too High

Every year Madeline's school has an auction to raise money. Each class always makes some artwork for the auction. Last year was our first year at the school. We went by the auction location early in the day to drop something off. I waited in the car, and when Cyndy came back out, she started talking about how cute the 4-K Itsy-Bitsy-Spider-Table-and-Chairs were. Each child in Madeline's class had put their thumb-print on this table and they had been turned into spiders.

Later that night we got to the auction and it was fun. There were silent auction items, a live auction, food, and open bar. I stuck pretty close to the open bar and at one point I didn't see Cyndy for a few minutes. When she came back she was very upset because the had been out-bid on the 4-K Itsy-Bitsy-Spider-Table-and-Chairs during the live auction to the tune of $500. (By an OBGYN, I guess he still had a little $ left after paying his med mal insurance premiums.)

This gave me an idea for a Christmas present. After much planning I bought a lamp from the local pottery place. Then I got the birth-month of every child in Madeline's class from the teacher. I then went to the class with paint and had the kids with birthdays in December, January and February put their thumbprints on one side of the lamp. Then March, April, May on the next side. You get the idea. I then took the lamp back to the pottery place and turned the thumbprints into scenes depicting the 4 seasons. A laminated card, velcro-ed inside the lamp lists the kids, their birth-month and which prints belong to who. I missed about a day and a half of work on this project.



Needless to say, the lamp was a huge hit. Every woman who sees it or even hears about it goes "AHHHH, how sweet."

The problem is, I will never match this Christmas gift for thought, originality, or the fact that I didn't spend hundreds of dollars on it.