If your social media feeds are anything like mine, they’ve been filled with “my Barbie collection” posts ever since Margot Robbie started doing press events dressed in designer versions of the doll’s most iconic outfits. Weeks before Greta Gerwig’s film was actually released, my friends were posting about Barbies they’d had in their own collections, whether they still had the actual dolls or could only share stock images.

This exercise in collective nostalgia led me back to one extra special Barbie memory from when I was 11 years old. It was Christmas Eve 1993. My family and I had gathered at my paternal grandmother’s house for our annual feast of fish (not seven, but plenty). Once the calamari, smelts and shrimp were cleared away, it was time for the part every kid looks forward to at the holidays: presents!