All She Wants For Christmas

My nine year old, Arianna, was VERY excited to hand over her Christmas list this year. The list had been edited, scribbled on, thought through, folded and refolded. The requests were numbered and at the top she had put "iPhone".
"Arianna honey," I said. "For real babes. You can't get an iPhone. You're nine and me and your Dad don't even have an iPhone."
"I don't want it for the phone part," she explained. "I want it for the cool apps."
"Probably not gonna happen," I said as my eyes drifted up and down her wish list.
There was a Nancy Drew PC game, a game for the Wii, she wanted a Razor Scooter. I began to wonder if she truly understood the value of things. Had me and Rob fought so hard to give our kids everything that they somehow didn't realize some things were more valuable than others? Did she understand that one silly Wii game cost a few hours of solid work out of us? And then my eyes caught Number Seven on her list.
A plane ticket for Piper. Piper was the golden hair beauty two doors down in our old neighborhood in New York. They went to the same school and had countless sleep overs. They traded friendship bracelets, painted each other's nails and giggled through High School Musical (1,2 and 3).
Arianna made no secret of her despair in leaving her behind when we moved last month.
"Good grief Ari," I said, ready to give her a lesson in economics. "Do you think we're made of money? A plane ticket? Do you know how much that would cost? If we got Piper a plane ticket, that would be all you got...we wouldn't be able to afford another thing on the list. These things are expensive. Do you understand?"
"Okay," she said solemnly.
"Okay what?" I asked. I wanted to hear her say it - I wanted to know that she got the lesson - that money doesn't grow on trees and hard earned cash is...well, hard earned.
"Okay," she said. "She's all I want. Use all my Christmas money on her ticket. Can we call her mom when we get home?"
"Oh gosh," I thought to myself. "She's not kidding."
As I fought to explain that Piper was probably equally wanted by her parents on Christmas Day, it dawned on me that Arianna knows the meaning of true value after all. Money doesn't grow on trees, and neither do best friends.