Toy Shopping is not for wimps!
© Reginald Vickers
As an uncle, there is nothing more fun than shopping for toys for the children of my two older brothers. None of them live around me, so with a good imagination, I can just picture their faces as they light up when their presents are opened. Better yet, I can imagine the horrified look on my brothers' faces as they realize what the present's main function is: to get back at them for all the years of torture that I, the youngest, had to endure. That drum set for Marvin was a small price to pay for the many phone calls I recieved from Mike about how it was driving him crazy. Or the Thelma doll for Carrie that said only one thing when you picked it up: "give baby a hug." (Do you know how many times a doll is picked up in a day?) Yet, still my favorite has to be the boxing gloves for Gordon. The home video of the "low blow" that Randy recieved brought tears to my eyes. Toys are such wonderful things to buy. But now that the nephews and nieces are getting older, much of the fun has gone out of Christmas. Well, I guess revenge is not what Christmas is all about anyways.
Maybe your reason for buying gifts is different from mine. Maybe yours is out of love or just the joy of giving (gee, I never thought about that). Well, the Internet is the best place to begin your toy shopping experience, whether you're going to purchase here or not.
Every year about this time, all the news programs have specials about buying toys. It's either "The Best Toys of The Year," "The Worst Toys of the Year," "The Safest Toys of the Year," "The Best Toys for Toddlers," "The Best Learning Toys," and "The Best Toys for children of Geeks" (OK, so I made that last one up). Here are a few suggestions from the experts.
