Belated Christmas Morning

Our original plan was to use some of Emilia's Christmas money to buy her a play kitchen, which we'd pull from the box on Christmas morning and away she'd go. What actually happened was a little different.

In November we ordered a Little Tikes kitchen from Sears. It arrived in Kemptville a couple of weeks later in plenty of time for Christmas, but right off the bat we (well, mostly I) had buyer's remorse. In big, bold letters above the upper cabinets was written Bon Appetite (cf. Bon Appétit). While perhaps not horribly offensive in a monolingual (non-French-speaking) home, that just wasn't going to fly in our bilingual French-English one. Besides, two words, two mistakes? Nevertheless, we decided to hold onto the kitchen in the short run and I even made a 'Santa Sack' for it from a brand new, purchased-for-the-occasion bed sheet. Maybe we'd be able to remove the sticker, or maybe we'd find an alternative in a hurry, but we didn't want to risk being kitchenless on Christmas! Particularly since my homemade apron, a set of cook ware, and pretend food were all but wrapped at the time.

Well, when we finally opened the box a day or two after Christmas (post Montreal trip), it became even more evident that this was not the kitchen for us. Not only was one end badly scratched/gouged; there were pretty serious weak spots where pieces made in separate molds had been fused together. That night I went online and began looking in earnest for a replacement.

My very first choice was Camden Rose's Simple Hearth but we didn't have $350 to spend, let alone $300 more for the coordinating refrigerator. Then I spotted an ingenious DIY kitchen made from Ikea components and got pretty excited about building something ourselves (okay, probably Martin's self!). Unfortunately, when we saw the base unit (a night stand) up close, that idea quickly went out the window. The finished product would be much too small to provide more than a couple of months of entertainment at best. At least the trip to Ikea hadn't been a total waste, though. I was slowly coming to an important realization: I had a very strong preference for wood over plastic.

Fast forward another couple of weeks and we'd finally found a respectable solution. The Prairie Kitchen is made by the same company, Kidkraft, that made Emilia's table and chairs, which gives the play room an integrated look. It may not have come with pretend food or a telephone, as had the one we sent back, but how much do we really care? It's solid wood with raised gas burners, knobs that turn and click, decorative trim and cut-outs, a divided oven, a towel bar, etc. The original sink basin was a bit pathetic in painted plastic, but my grandmother, whose Christmas money we'd used to buy the kitchen, happened to have a metal mixing bowl just the right size.

It took Martin and me a good two hours of assembly (as we'd expected all along based on comments by fellow Amazon customers) but it was worth it. Albeit a few weeks late, Emilia finally had her Christmas morning. She loved the kitchen the moment she laid eyes on it, she happily shared it with a new friend (we hosted a play date), and it was all I could do to coax her away for lunch and a nap this afternoon.

I only have one complaint. The back of the kitchen isn't quite tall enough to conceal a damaged section of play room wall. But I have a plan. More on that another time!