Ruth's Ducks is a true story about a grab bag gift item I received when I was 8 years old. Leading up to the exchange, I was hoping that I would somehow be able to get the gift that I brought (a Lisa Frank art set). Instead, I walked away with a pair of tiny wax ducks connected by a wick. I was devastated. When I got home, I threw the ducks in the garbage and stomped off to my room.

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My mother, disappointed in my behavior, fished the ducks out of the garbage, cleaned them off, and called me downstairs. She suggested that Ruth's parents might not have had the financial means to bring a gift for each of their kids to participate in the grab bag exchange and that they very likely brought something they already at home instead of a new toy.  She explained to me that even though we did not have very much, that there were people in our community that had less, and the ducks would serve as our reminder of that. She hung them on our Christmas tree as an ornament.

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Several years passed and my family fell on harder times. My mom informed us this would change the gift exchange my siblings and I were used to. A bit older and wiser, I finally reflected on what was important to me at Christmas and how Ruth must have felt when we were eight years old. It was then that I understand what the ducks symbolized for my mother. That was the first year I offered to hang the ducks on our tree.

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Ruth's Ducks are now preserved in a glass box with gold trimming which sits on my desk the 11 months they are not on my tree. The ducks have been replicated into a flat ornament for you to hang on your tree (or elsewhere) to serve as a reminder to be thankful for what you have and that there are people in the world who have less.