Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!

Welcome to my second annual "Light a Few Sparks in Memory of My Mom" contest (I'm going to need a better name!). For a refresher, see last year's contest here.

In years past, I've been an occasional helper in various assistance subs. But when my mom died last fall, I decided to start something to honor her.

My dear mom was a single mom who struggled like hell to make ends meet for her kids. She was a proud woman who, even in the roughest times, kept her head held high. Despite being broker than broke, she always found a way to make Christmas nice. She always had a smile on her face, a laugh to share, even when I knew she was heartbroken that she couldn't put much, if anything, under the tree.

I am who I am because of her years of struggle and sacrifice. I've been so very lucky in life and none of it would have been possible without her daily fight to clear a path for me. She would never suffer whining or self-pity and—even when she herself could barely see her way to the next day—would nonetheless get up every morning and tell me I could do anything I wanted in life. That would turn out to be surprisingly true, but only because of her.

One of the things she did that made such a difference was her boundless encouragement of my intellectual curiosity. I loved to read, so she found a way to get me an encyclopedia set she couldn't afford. I was curious about electronics, so she somehow scraped up the money to buy me a small electronics kit (one of those 150-in-1 Science Fair things). I was interested in computers, so she bought me a book about computers (buying a computer was definitely not an option!) and encouraged me to take an after-school computer class in grade school. These seemingly little things had enormous, almost existential, impacts on my life. They played a huge part in my career success, and set me on the paths I still walk today. Had she not fanned those small flames the best she could with her very limited resources, I would absolutely not be living the life I live today.

I want to pass this on! While I'm lucky to have had many years to return the favor and make her life easier, even that feels woefully inadequate. So I'd like to help a few single moms who see a spark of curiosity in their young ones but need a little help fanning those flames.

HOW TO ENTER

• Share an item via a wishlist, please (as the sub rules describe here) that you would like to give to your child that will help feed a curiosity/interest/passion of theirs. No essay needed; this time of year is stressful enough. Just tell me a little bit about why it would matter to your young one. Ideally these are things that have the potential to have an outsized impact in sparking/fueling their creative/intellectual curiosity such as the examples I mentioned above.

• If you have already posted a request on this or a similar sub, please include a link to it. This will help me understand your story/situation without asking you to tell it again.

RULES

• Single mom (nothing against single dads - you rock too, but this is for my mom).
• Registered and in compliance with all other rules of this sub.

I don't have a set number of people or price limit, but please keep it reasonable and within the usual price bounds of this sub. By doing that, you will help me have much more of an impact.

When we get to the closing date (December 12, noon PT), I will pick winner(s) at random based on responses and budget.

EDIT 12/12/2022: I will name winners tomorrow!

EDIT 12/13/2022: I have replied to the winners' comments below; I couldn't get to everyone, but I tried to fulfill as many as I could among the entries that seemed in keeping with the spirit of the contest.