OT warning.
But hey – ‘tis the season.
I’ve made what may turn out to be a rather large mistake. I bought an Xbox 360 for Christmas. My wife and I decided – about five years ago, that we wanted to avoid the whole video game trap for as long as we possibly could - we’d seen too many of our friends’ kids wind up as zombies in front of televisions. So, up until now, we’ve pretty much abstained. More accurately, we’ve forced our son to abstain (with the exception of a Game Boy). To his great credit, my son has never asked for a video game system – we caved on the Game Boy because we saw how much it interested him when his friends were using theirs. My son is not perfect, but one of the many things I love about him is that he’s not materialistic – he rarely asks us for anything.
Having said all of that, I remember the absolute joy of receiving the unexpected gift – the Six Million Dollar Man toy with the rocket ship/operating room, the Vertibird helicopter, the P-39 Bell Aircobra gas engine plane. I also remember the Christmas where Dad gave away our Christmas dinner; my Dad’s a now retired Lutheran minister, and as he explained to my furious mother, it seemed like the right thing to do. And it was – a simple thing like a dinner became someone else’s unexpected gift. A dinner we would likely have taken for granted.
So I’m committed now – although I’ve hedged my bets a little. I’m going to give the Xbox as a gift to my wife, which will allow her to set the rules pertaining to its use. Did I mention I hadn’t brought her into the decision making process on this one? Something which I’ve obviously picked up from Dad.
If the blog falls silent after Christmas, you’ll know how well this went over.
