Preemptive Christmas Haul

When Toys R Us went out of business, it was like a part of my childhood died.  Granted, I hadn't shopped in there in years (too expensive, even during the final days when things were supposed to be discounted 90%... you could still get them cheaper at Target).  

Still, Toys R Us always reminded me of Christmas.  If you were a child in the '80s, I have no doubt that you not only remember this commercial but have fond and cozy memories of it hailing the start of the Christmas season as much as seeing Santa Claus at the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

(Note for my millennial readers:  once upon a time, Christmas decorations did not go up mid-September.  Christmas season started after Thanksgiving.  It was magical.  Now it's just consumer bullshit.  Back-to-school supplies in the stories July 5?  No, this is wrong!)

Anyway, when Toys R Us went out of business, Darryl and I headed to Ollie's at the beginning of October because we heard that they had bought a lot of TRU stock and we wanted to check it out.

If you've never been to Ollie's, think Big Lots, where they buy all the crap that isn't flying off the shelves quickly enough in other stores.  They buy it up and sell it to you for a fraction of what you would pay in the initial store.  (Example:  I bought over the counter hair dye at Ollie's once for $3 that sold at Target for $7... I was so excited at my findings that I bought a case!)

A lot of what we saw was crap, but then we stumbled upon the stack of age-appropriate toys for Joshua.  First of all, they were all WOODEN, which thrilled me to no end. I hate toys that remove all creativity from the child playing.  A toy car doesn't need to make noise when you can go, "brrrm brrrm."  In our overly electronic world, let's give infants a break.  Secondly, they were all Fisher-Price, which I loved.  Thirdly, they were all dramatically, dramatically reduced.

We spent about $100 for all pictured here.  


Then I looked up the prices on Amazon, which are usually on the cheaper side compared to most big box stores, and I almost passed out.  

• barista set (Darryl insisted) was $24
• wooden shapes were $23
• octopus thingie was $26
• plane $9
• whale shape sorter $27
• ice cream truck $16
• moving animals $12/each (we bought 3) 
• shape animals $7.50/each (be bought 6 of them) 
• deep blue sea stacker $50

$256 worth of stuff for about $90

I was super proud of my haul, especially since all the toys were high-quality, educational, and used imagination.  But it was only October.  I didn't want to think that maybe we wouldn't have Joshua for Christmas, that maybe this would have been for nothing.

But Darryl brought it up anyway.

"What if he goes home before Christmas?  What will we do with all this stuff?"

I didn't want to think about it, so I said, "Then we'll give it to Bram."

Except we didn't have to.