Countdown to Christmas: 3 More Sleeps

I think we should discuss what Christmas is really about: toys. Since Colin is still young enough to think an empty box or paper bag is the best toy ever, I have no idea what the hot toys are this year. But, I will always remember 1983 -- the year of the Cabbage Patch Kid.

Like any 10-year-old girl, the Christmas of 1983 was all about the Cabbage Patch Kid. But I didn't want any Kid, I wanted a girl ... who was blonde ... with a pacifier. And lo and behold, my blonde, pacificer-sucking little girl -- I believe her name was Edwina Tabitha -- was under the tree that year.

It wasn't until much later that I learned what my mother had to do to get me that doll. She and my grandmother went to Toys R' Us on the day a shipment arrived. They stood in a mob of other parents and tried to catch a doll as the Toys R' Us employees threw them into the crowd. The one my mom caught just happened to be exactly what I wanted. Santa's elves were on our side that year.

I don't think my parents had to resort to that kind of madness any other Christmas. I guess I was too old for the Care Bears of 1985 or the Pound Puppies of 1986. I definitely had no interest in the Pogs, Beanie Babies, Tickle Me Elmos, Pokemons, and Furbys of the 1990s.

I guess everything comes full circle and in a couple of years Daddy and I will be fighting the throngs for the latest must-have toy. Or more likely, we'll be pre-ordering it online.