We are definitely starting to get into the festive mood Chez Caledonia and encountering all sorts of frustrations when it comes to ordering toys for the kids. My niece turned 8 on Wednesday and she is reaching that in between stage where she wants more grown up things but isn’t quite old enough for the pre-teen stuff. Usually, I just head for the Barbie section but I’m really not impressed with their range this year.

After a lot of catalogue searching and web surfing, I got the idea to concentrate on Hannah Montana because she loves the programme and I was ecstatic to find a range of singing dolls. I wasn’t so ecstatic when I discovered the dolls were only available in the USA and wouldn’t be released in the UK until 2008. Undaunted, I decided to order on Amazon and have them shipped over but the warranty prohibits the dolls being sold outside the US! I was not a happy camper by this stage. I want one of those dolls, dammit! Thank God for Ebay! I bought one instantly and it arrived today!

Now, we are having similar problems with the boys and the Transformers movie merchandise - almost all of it is sold out! We managed to reserve Optimus Prime and I had to nip out at lunch time to pick it up before they sold it to someone else. So, we just have to wait on new stock arriving and we are done. These toys are what my mum is buying for the kids but I seem to have ended up with the headaches. My gift decisions were so easy in comparison! It gets harder every year to get the most popular toys and I totally despise people who take advantage of parents by selling goods on Ebay for two or three times their value.

On a lighter note, the decorations are all up in town and I noticed workmen planting the Christmas trees which are a gift from the people of Norway!