It must be Christmas, the Leg Lamp has returned

One of my all time favorite movies is "The Christmas Story." One of the sub plots in the movie involves the Dad and the arrival of the "major award" he won. It arrives in a beastly sized wooden crate and he excitedly but carefully opens the crate and unpacks the items to see what he has won. The Dad discovers he has won a lamp. But not just any lamp. To him, this lamp is a thing of beauty, a masterful work of art that proudly needs to be displayed in the front window for every passerby to behold. To Mom, she sees nothing more than a ticky-tacky lighted leg with a fringe trimmed shade that would do better sitting on top of a trash pile at the city dump than on her living room table.

I tell you this story to bring you back in time with me to Christmas six years ago. My Mom, being ever the impulsive shopper , decided to pull over and purchase some Christmas gifts from a van turned into a makeshift roadside stand. Most of the year that "stand" sells turtles and hermit crabs with airbrushed decorated shells that are guaranteed to teach your child about The Circle of Life within two weeks. They might even throw in the Ziploc baggies and shoe box for your back yard burial for free if you ask them.

But a month out of every year they sell something else. They sell a Christmas decoration. My Mom saw these decorations and decided all the kids in the family needed one. That Christmas rolls around and my gift is unveiled as I pull it out from a kitchen trash bag. What Bill saw when I opened this gift was a thing of beauty. He saw superior skilled craftsmanship of a perfectly geometrical orb and entrancing multi-color lights dancing in symmetry and precision. He was in awe and immediately plugged it in to find just the right setting to showcase the work of art.

What I saw when I opened the gift was a couple of clear Dixie cups cobbled together with a dollar store string of Christmas lights. While I could appreciate the work that went into making the piece, I couldn't get past the fact that it was still just Dixie cups glued together. I smiled at my Mom and thanked her for the gift and made a mental note to drop it off at the first Goodwill drop off point I passed going home.

But it never made it to Goodwill. Bill overrode me. He made a spot for the piece in the front window the moment we walked through the door. He futzed with the angle, the height, and the light settings. He turned it on and walked out to the street to see how it looked from a passersby eye. I think he was prouder of that light than his first car.

This Dixie cup art has become known amongst all of our friends and family as simply, "The Leg Lamp." Six years later, Bill has once again pulled out The Leg Lamp and put it on display in the front window just as he has every other year. He futzed with the settings, adjusted the angle, and stood out in the street to see how it looked to passersby. But rather than wanting to destroy it in a furious dusting accident (yeah right, who would believe that one from me?), I just smile and go with it knowing the holiday season has officially begun and Christmas will be right around the corner.