My brother likes to say that when it rains people forget how to drive. Lately I've been starting to believe that when the Christmas shopping season rolls in people forget how to shop. I've built up a lot of Christmas rage while standing in line while people ask the cashier questions that they should have asked someone else because the cashier can't leave her station to find them the toy in the exact color they want and then hedge about their item even though they've been standing in line for twenty minutes already and then they have to dig for their checkbook after finally making a decision. Matt and I have been doing some early Christmas shopping for his nieces and nephews, so we can drop off their presents when we visit his family in early December.

We had asked his sister what the kids were into these days. The one who just started intermediate school is into Bratz dolls. When we went out to find them, I stood in the toy store with the Bratz Funk & Glow Sasha doll in hand exclaiming, "She looks like a whore!" while a mother shot me a dirty look as she was shopping in the same aisle of Bratz and Diva dolls pulling her kid along.

I tried to remember what kinds of things that I was into at that age. I honestly don't remember as far as toys go. I think around that time, sixth or seventh grade, I got a new bike for Christmas and would ride around with my friends, coasting down the hills of the town houses near our homes and then leaning our bikes against the trees as we tried to see who could scale the highest.