Merry Christmas! Now where's my stuff?

MSN posted some tips on what to buy your teacher (a.k.a. me!) for Christmas:

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/Departments/Elementary/?article=SkipPaperweights&GT1=10680

Teachers really clean up this time of year! My family never got fancy gifts for my teachers. I remember getting my piano teacher these lame kitten bookmarks every year. She said she liked them, though, because I would explain why I got them: "Oh, I thought this one looked like your cat, and check it out, she's walking on a PIANO! Isn't that cute?" Kids don't know from kitsch.

My students' parents spend considerably more - I get gift certificates to nice restaurants (which I LOVE because I dig eating out, and it's a luxury for me). The thing that really shocked me last year, though, wasn't the presents, but that so many of the parents stopped in to say stuff like, "Thank you so much for all you do for _____". I never really thought I'd get thanked for doing my job. It really makes you feel like a human, in this world where you often feel like a commodity.