December always fills me with dread. Sure, I love the holidays and spending time with friends and family – who doesn’t? But I know that my worst fears are slowly taking shape in the deserts of Nevada, where an enormous, lumbering beast with 140,000 heads is growing: CES — the consumer electronics event we all love to hate.

The vitriol has grown in recent years, with sites like Quartz calling it “a dud” and “increasingly irrelevant.” Ignore these ignoramuses. Last year’s show was anything but, with records set for attendance and event space. It also featured some truly game-changing gear: We were wowed by the industry-changing Sling TV app, Dell’s impossibly sleek XPS 13, and OLED televisions from LG and others that left our tech-hungry team sitting in puddles of drool.

CES 2016 promises a  fresh collection of mind-melting gadgets, gizmos of all sorts. It’s likely the year we see a consumer version of the Oculus Rift. It’s likely the year you buy a 4K television. In 2016 your house will get smarter — and I bet your clothing does too. And all of that stuff? We’ll see it in early January in Vegas.

Sorting through it all is the real challenge. With 176,000 attendees and close to 3,700 companies showing their wares, including nearly 400 start-ups, making sense of it all is a challenge. Here’s what I think you should keep an eye out for as the beast lumbers into town.