A Very Merry Egal Christmas

We didn't plan to spend a lot of money on gifts this year...a sentiment I'm sure I shared with many other parents.  The amazing thing, though, is that we actually stuck to it.  Many of the presents the kids received were from Pa and Grandma...and seeing as how they decided to spoil both kids, we figured, "why spend the money when they bought what we were going to buy!"

Ronan has been obsessed with trains and cars, so of course, he had an abundance of those under the tree.  He was definitely more into the present concept, being that we had talked about it more...but he wasn't quite as excited to open all his gifts, like Riley was!  The difference between the two kids was that while Riley was more about the QUANTITY of gifts, Ronan was about the QUALITY.  He actually wanted to play with each thing before moving onto the next present...something that I'm sure will change as he gets older...

Ah, onto my precious Riley.  She still believes in Santa, which is great.  She asked him for this cupcake maker (which I really didn't want to fulfill, but since Pa has to get anything Riley asks for, he took care of that for me...)  It was under the tree, unwrapped (because Santa's 401K was drained and he had no extra funds to wrap presents for every boy and girl) and it was the highlight of Riley's Christmas.  

She could not wait to use it.  I, on the other hand, put it off as long as I could.  A few days went by, me, still procrastinating the opening of this bright pink box...when I couldn't take the "can we do the cupcake machine?" question any longer...I had it all set-up one evening so in the morning we could just play.

I read the directions and carefully placed all the necessary supplies on placemats at the dining room table.  Riley was in her glory.  She stirred and stirred and mixed and touched all the ingredients she could get her hands on.  I walked all the way to the microwave and cooked that cupcake for an entire 30 seconds.  

It was done.

We prepared the icing, as noted in the directions, placed it in the machine and away Riley went, pressing the button to ice her cupcake.  That's when the screaming started.  No, not from Ronan.  No, not from Riley...but from ME, as the icing literally went everywhere.  Picture pulling a mixer out of the batter, while it's still on.  That's what it did.  The icing started to fly all over the place and I about freaked.  We stopped and with a sad face, I looked at Riley and said, "Honey, this was poorly made.  It was made in China."

We cleaned it up and I let Riley lick what icing she could get her hands on.  Guess where the machine is now?  It's in several pieces scattered throughout Riley's room.  I think the next time she bakes, it's going to be with REAL batter and icing and we'll do it in the kitchen.

Thanks, Santa...thanks for nothing.