One smart cookie....

It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas these days. Okay, well we've have some unseasonably warm weather here but take a look in every store and you are probably seeing chocolates, ornaments, and toys crowding the shelves. I guess it shouldn't have been a surprise that my daughter Camryn was starting to think about her list for Santa.

Several years ago Camryn asked for a toy horse that she could ride that walked and bucked. If you are wondering why you have never heard of this toy....well that's because it just doesn't exist. Oh sure her grandparents and I have tried passing off other toy horses that neigh, make a crunching noise when you place a toy carrot in it's mouth, and you can sit on it. Yup. Not at all what she had in mind. I thought I'd get smart and that year Santa wrote Camryn a lovely letter talking about how they had tried to build her a toy horse that walked and bucked but that it kept breaking down. Santa said he was sorry but that that he and the elves didn't want to give her a broken toy for Christmas. He had one of his very best elves Zippy Twinkletoes on the job to make her something else very special that year. I thought it was genius. I also thought that that was the end of it. Not so much....

Again the following year she asked for a toy horse that walked and had a "buck mode". Yah...still doesn't exist so this time Zippy himself writes the letter to Camryn saying that he and the other elves had been working very hard to build this toy horse. This time though Zippy's sister Dazzle was testing the horse's buck mode and it flung her across the workshop. Thankfully she landed in a pile of stuffed elephants and wasn't seriously hurt. Phew. Hello lawsuit!!

Probably not the real Zippy

So I was feeling rather smug and thinking that this year she would forget about this toy horse or at least that she would know that Santa wasn't going to risk anymore elf lives by trying to make such a seriously dangerous toy. Yah, think again sister. She still wants this stupid horse. She even wrote her letter this year and stated that it was okay if it didn't have a buck mode. She didn't want any of the elves to get hurt. She'll just settle for a brown horse that walks and she can ride on it. Yup....even that doesn't exist. I've googled it. There are a few products that are close but she doesn't want the one that bobs up and down. It has to walk.

I've officially been outsmarted by my 9 year old. At least she doesn't know that yet. And for those of you in the crowd that think that I should get her horse back riding lessons instead....um, done that. Santa gave that to her last year when he crushed her little heart and didn't bring this toy. She enjoyed the lessons but she still wants this horse very badly. I'm worried that she'll stop believing in Santa after this year if he can't produce the goods. She told me that he is magic and he can do anything. Sigh. I'm trying honey.....I'm trying.