It was at least two months before Christmas when nine-year-old Almie Rose told her father and me that she wanted a new bicycle. As Christmas drew near, her desire for a bicycle seemed to fade, or so we thought. We bought the latest rages. Baby-Sitter’s Club dolls and a doll house. Then , much to our surprise, on December 23rd,she said that she really wanted a bike more than anything else.
It was just too late, what will all the details of preparing Christmas dinner and buying last-minute gifts, to take the time to select the “right bike” for our little girl. So here we were ——Christmas Eve around 9:00 p.m., with Almie and her six-year-old brother, Dylan, nested snug in their beds. Now we could only think of the bicycle and the disappointment of our child. “What if the bicycle out of clay (a kind of earth) and write a note that she could trade the clay model in for a real bike?” her dad asked. “This is an expensive item and she is ‘such a big girl,’ and it would be much better for her to pick it out.” So he spent the next four hours painstakingly working with clay to make a tiny bike.
On Christmas morning, we were excited for Almie to open the little heart-shaped pack-age with the beautiful red and white clay bike and the note. Finally, she opened it and read the note aloud. “Does this mean that I trade in this bike that Daddy made me for a real one?” Beaming, I said, “Yes.” Almie had tears in her eyes when she replied, “I could never trade in this beautiful bicycle that Daddy made me. I’d rather keep this than get a real bike.” At that moment, we would have moved heaven and earth to buy every bicycle on the planet!

还只是在圣诞节前的两个月的时候，9岁的Almie就告诉她爸爸和我说她想要一辆新的自行车。随着圣诞节的邻近，正如我们想的一样，她的这个愿望也变得越来越淡。我们买了最新的过家家的人偶玩具准备作为礼物。但是出乎我们意料的是，12月23号的时候她告诉我们：她比以前还想要那辆自行车。
时间已经来不及了，准备圣诞大餐和那些最后才想起来买的礼物这些琐碎的事要花的时间让我们没有时间去挑选“那辆自行车”来给我们的小女儿。所以当圣诞前夜的晚上9点钟Almie和她6岁的弟弟Dylan上床睡觉的时候。我们能做的只是想着那辆自行车和女儿的失望。“如果我们用粘土捏一辆给她，然后告诉她可以用这个换一辆真的自行车，”她爸说：“这是个不便宜的东西，而她也是一个‘大女孩’了，想必能理解这里面的意思。”接下来，他用4小时的时间小心翼翼的做了一辆粘土的小自行车。
圣诞节的早上，我们激动地期待着Almie打开那个心形的盒子并看到里面那辆漂亮的红白相间的粘土自行车和字条。她打开盒子并大声地读着那张纸条。“这是不是说我要用爸爸做的这辆车去换一辆真的？”我愉快地回答道：“对呀！”Almie回答我的时候流下了眼泪，“我永远都不会用爸爸做的这辆漂亮的小车去换什么的，这比所有的真车都要好。”那一瞬间，我们就想，怎么样也要为她买到这个世界上的任何一辆自行车。