Last weekend, my sister Betsy and I introduced C, NC and G to the newest versionof one of our favorite childhood toys: the iconic Easy Bake Oven.

The year was 1978. The season was Christmas. And the activity was a serious one: the annual writing of letters to Santa by my little sister, brother and myself.

I don’t remember what else I asked Santa Claus for that year,but I know that after reminding him of my many stellar accomplishments during the previous 12 months, I made it abundantly clear that I REALLY, REALLY wanted that groovy Easy Bake Oven featured in that year’s Sears Wish Book.

I am sure that I loved all my Christmas gifts that year. After all, Santa was always exceptionally good to us Allison kids. However, I will never forget the sting on that particular Christmas morning of rushing down the stairs only to realize that while Santa had indeed delivered the much-longed for Easy Bake Oven, he’d somehow made a terrible error… AND BROUGHT IT FOR MY LITTLE SISTER.

Read the rest of my truly heartbreaking, life-scarring holiday tale, and check out the 50 year gallery of Easy Bake Oven design over in my latest blog post at Babble Voices. (PS: this post over at Babble Voices also includes an awesome toy giveaway from Target for a family in need. You can nominate someone deserving, and I hope you will.)