Next time will be different

March 15, 2008- a loooooooong time ago, at least in the life of a 14 year old, my oldest son had his confirmation in church. In our neck of the woods (o.k. I admit there are no woods here, but hey, you get the picture) this is a big event and the kids' gifts usually reflect that. Once again, hubby and I decided to not go with the flow. When most kids were getting laptops from their parents, we decided we wanted to give him something more "special". Yep, that´s us. The folks who think their kids are more special than others and only deserve the best. Makes us "special" parents, huh!?! Flame away! O.k. Kid loves turtles and marine life in general. So what could be more perfect than a week at Sea World camp in Orlando? - Zip, nada! Best friends parents agreed. Said they would send their son too. Great, wonderful, fantastic....until..................................................confirmation day. Guess what their kid got? - You guessed it. A trip to Sea World camp, right? Uh...no- What do you mean, no? Kid got new phone and $1000. Why, you may ask. Well, please don´t ask me cause I have no idea whatsoever. They never discussed these new plans with me. Do I send a 14 year old alone on a plane, approx. 3000 miles around the world and tell him to stay for a week and then come back, alone again! Hell no! So what do we do instead? The best idea we could come up with was to plan for a trip a year later, when mom and dad would have saved up enough money and frequent flier points to go with him (makes for a nice couple of kid free days while he´s at camp). And this was truely our plan. I even sometimes think I was looking more forward to the week in Orlando than kid was. Guess what? Icelandair decides to stop flying to Orlando in the summer months. And no, I´m not going to fly into some other place first making this planned trip twice as expensive and with no chance to use our points. Which leaves us back at our starting point. We promised him a fun and special gift and this is what we intend to give him, without breaking the bank! Daughters confirmation is next year. I am soooo not going to get myself into the same kind of trouble in 2010. Hoping I can combine their gifts this year. A long weekend in London (without the little kids) is in discussion mode. Any and all ideas will be greatly appreciated. At the moment I feel most like giving them $$$ (so much for special) and going on a romantic getaway with my hubby to get away from this whole mess. Hmmmmmm...food for thought.