I’m longing for the day when the kids are old enough to have games that I will enjoy playing as much as they do. This year’s Christmas wasn’t bad, though.
WeSanta brought Abby a few nice things. She is very into this secret agent thing, since she’s been watching the Backyardigans a lot. She really wanted this secret agent rope belt thing that one of the characters has. It shoots out a grappling rope that lets the backyardigans climb around. Needless to say, Abby is a little young for that. Instead, she got a bunch of spy gadgets, including a voice changer, a spy telescope, and a spy communicator (also known as a walkie-talkie), along with a nice bag for everything to go in.
Also among her gifts was a Leapster. It’s like a GameBoy that plays educational games. It’s actually pretty neat. I hope she learns some things from it. It would be helpful if these kid software packages would tell a story and force her to do certain activities, rather than letting her select what she wants to do all the time. She always picks the stuff she’s already good at and doesn’t progress with any of the other stuff.
Riley’s pickin’s this Christmas were mostly clothes, but we did get him a couple of things to play with. We got some kind of kicking noisemaker and a stuffed Cookie Monster. The kicking thing was a “Dad assembly required.” Not a big deal, but not really worth it because the entire assembled piece could have fit cleanly in the box. The labor on the extra assembly must have really cut into the bottom line.
I got Berta a jewelry box and a Chia herb garden. Not much to be said about that.
Berta got me a Nintendo DS. I’ve been playing some DS games I got on the day after Christmas. I bought both of the weird noremally-Japan-only titles, Feel the Magic and Sprung. Feel the Magic was great. I like the minigames and the bizarre “theme” that holds it all together. Sprung is a little arbitrary, but it’s an amusing glimpse at Japanese dating simulations - a market that never sees these shores. I hope they export some better ones.
Of course, there are other gifts, but I feel strange listing everything. As if there would be bias if I talked about one thing more than another or left something out. Suffice to say that all of this years gifts were great, and thanks to everyone who gave.
I hope your holiday was as nice as mine.
