Who put the Easy in this thing???

So one of Marley's big ticket items on the list this year (a bit down from the million dollars and puppy that she DIDN'T receive) was an Easy Bake Oven. And I use the term Easy very lightly. Thanks to a kind friend who was moving and downsizing we aquired this lightbulb box for free and were able to turn it into a prized Christmas present with little effort.

Three days in a row, Marley and I have baked cookies (and again I use the plural 's' VERY lightly, lightly as one might step on thin ice in the middle of an ocean.) We have a choice of making one cookie (two inches in diameter) or 6 teeny little cookies. Once we made the "big" one and twice we made the six tiny ones. Each time it takes about 25 minutes to do, most of the time is spent waiting for the lightbulb to warm the plastic box. Then when it is done another 10 minutes to cool the cookie. FOR ONE COOKIE!! We could bake two dozen cookies in this time in a REAL oven. And we do bake together all the time. I love to bake, and Marley USUALLY bakes with me. So I don't understand her delight in this thing. But I am patient and I am delighted in her pride at her cookies. So one cookie at a time we go along together. And one cookie at a time, we are happy.

If I could take a moment, since it is Christmas, to relay an old childhood memory that surfaced when the Easy Bake Oven idea popped up in Marley's mind...
My sister had an Easy Bake Oven when we were little. I don't remember ever using it. But I do remember sitting in the back of the station wagon, Remember that seat that folded down in the back? The seat that when in use faced the back window/door? There was this little handle hole in the seat when folded down. A hole so that you could reach in and pull the seat back into position. In that hole, my sister saw the box for an Easy Bake Oven, and proceeded to tell my mom how she knew she was getting it for Christmas. My mom told her some story about how it wasn't for her, or it was just an empty box she was using for storage or something like that. Funny.

My sister was such a spoiler of holidays like that. I figure I was 6 or 7 when she spoiled Santa for me. We were going to visit my Grandma for Christmas and my mom said hold on in the car, she had to run into the house and get something. She was gone about 10 minutes, maybe longer. My sister insisted that Mom was in the house putting the presents under the tree so she could say Santa did it when we got home from Grandma's. Then when we got home she even pointed out how Santa's S was in my mom's writing.

We all (even Brenda and Bret) go through leaps and bounds to keep Santa in Marley's Christmas. She only has a few more years to be young. And we so want her to have that just a little bit longer.