We took advantage of M. being at preschool and C. not commanding the language well enough to share secrets to take our youngest one along with us today to Toys R Us to scout out the hottest toys for the holiday season. Place was packed. I’m not sure if it was people using their two hour window for voting to actually get a jump on Christmas shopping or maybe Tuesdays are always a busy day, but it was strange to find the place hopping at noon.

I was shocked – SHOCKED I say – that there are Star Wars Lego sets that run $99.99. I’m pretty sure I made an Imperial Star Destroyer that looked pretty sweet out of my box of random Legos 30 years ago. Sure, it wasn’t a “limited edition” but it was still pretty sweet.

Speaking over over-marketing, I know Dora and Diego are every-freaking-where but having C. with us really reinforces that. Every five seconds she was saying “Doh-wa!” “Gah-go!” “Boot!” “Bah-pah!” That’s Dora, Diego, Boots, and Backpack for you non-parents out there. You can’t walk five feet in that store without seeing something that is Dora/Diego branded. I hope the creators of the show got a nice piece of the marketing pie when they signed their contracts.

Anyway, I guess my whole point is that Christmas seems to come earlier every year. Of course, Woody Boyd would respond by saying that if I checked, <a href=”http://www.tv.com/cheers/thanksgiving-orphans/episode/14176/summary.html”>I would see it always comes on the 25th of December</a>.