Christmas recap: Happy children, broken toys, frustrated and disappointed parents, followed by some singing of Fah who for-aze, Dah who dor-aze!
just to show that it's not all about gifts and roast beast.

But back to the toys. Toys seem to be getting less expensive thanks to our friends in China, with more and more features packed into a remote control vehicle that retails for $19.99. The only problem-everything breaks within minutes. On Christmas morning my kids got disappointment after disappointment, as the remote control helicopter broke within 10 minutes of use, the mini air hockey table was broken out of the box, and the motor on the fantastic bubble maker failed to do any motoring. Thankfully the stuffed dog was not missing an eye.

Maybe I shouldn't complain. Maybe I could've spent more money for higher quality stuff. But I don't think so. Because these days it seems more difficult than ever to simply pay a little more for higher quality - instead, spending more money means more and more features are packed in, and the chances of the toys breaking are just as great as with the less expensive toys.

Some of the toys were from Target and Toys R Us, so you might think we just bought cheap stuff. But the stuff we bought from the independent toy store that carries the higher-end brands was just as likely to go kablooey.

I feel like a crotchety old man. But having to tell your kids over and over again, "We've got the receipts, let's make sure we don't lose the original packaging" on Christmas morning is a little depressing.

The roast beast was good, though.

(Image of the crying doll was filched from this very interesting history of the Rankin/Bass Rudolph special.)