When I wrote my Christmas plea on Thursday I didn’t anticipate we would have fulfilled this holiday wish in a weekend. Ya’ll are amazing! Seriously, thank you for the Tweets, emails, comments and Facebook messages. We were overwhelmed. The Internet can be an awesome place some times.

We couldn’t have done it without your tips. Some of you had friends who worked at Target and had insider information about shipments. Others found out the dolls would be featured in the Sunday newspaper circular and dolls were likely being stored in warehouses before restocking on Sunday. Friends from other states sent me Facebook messages after discovering dolls were near them. Others were coming to the Raleigh area soon and promised to look at their Target before traveling. One reader just moved to town and happened to find my post as she was searching for dolls for her niece. She offered to help us find dolls for Charlotte. It was all amazing. THANK YOU!

Creepy. We know. I told you they were huge dolls. Ugh. They’re gonna haunt my dreams.

I’ve had people ask me, how did we get from Target app searches to Mommy/Elsa Daddy/Anna selfies? How did we NOT have to resort to price gougers charging 3 TIMES the price of the dolls on eBay and Amazon? Some legwork and then some luck made it happen. To get hard-to-find toys for the 2014 holiday, I have these tips:

1. Put out the word! Tell Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and your blog (if you have one) that you need help. You’d be surprised. I heard, “Hey, just saw one returned at XYZ store yesterday.”
2. Keep checking online. Everyday. I got the tip to check early in the morning. Someone told me about sites like this one that keep track of merchandise at certain stores.
3. Be an early bird! Call stores first thing in the morning. That is when they are unloading shipments. On Saturday I snagged Elsa when I called and they randomly happened to get two Elsas off the truck that morning. I had them put one on hold for me. The other was gone when I got there. I’m glad they held it because I had to answer the door for some Jehovah’s Witnesses before I could get to Target. True story. It was crazy cold and they wanted to share a passage from Jeremiah. They were very nice. I listened, but I was thinking of Elsa. Greyson got Anna at 7:00am on a Sunday. I heard others say they tried the early morning thing and struck out.
4. Luck. We got lucky.

Another thing to consider is shipping cost.  Someone in another state found a toy my friend’s son wanted a few years ago and was able to ship it. Well, it was smaller. Shipping was likely less. These dolls are ginormous. Lord knows how much it would have cost to mail them. Yeesh! I likely could’ve bought them on eBay for that price. My sister-in-law in Denver tried to find out if she could get free shipping with her Target card or Red Card or whatever they call it. I had my feelers out everywhere, but I focused my search in-state for that reason.

Again, thank you! We were so touched that friends, family and total strangers were willing to help our daughter’s Christmas wishes come true. Anna and Elsa are tucked away in a storage closet, creepily staring into the dark until Christmas morning. Happy Holidays everyone!