Showing posts with label xbox. Show all posts
Showing posts with label xbox. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Boys will be boys

Sorry for the scarce blogging lately.  We close on our house next week and then we move in the following week, so the paucity of posts will probably continue through the next few weeks.

I mentioned in my previous post that I would write more about the Nintendo Wii.  I'm sure you remember the way I practically martyred my marriage in the ultimate gift of love.  (Casey, reading over my shoulder, says that I can't use the phrase "martyred my marriage" because it doesn't make sense.  Oh well, it makes perfect sense to me.)  So, for the past few months, Casey has been whining about getting a Wii.  Due to the forces of low supply and high demand, Wiis have been practically impossible to find in the stores.  So we made a serendipity pact.  If we happened to come across one in the store while out shopping, we could get it, but we weren't going to go out and actively search for one.  So Casey got in trouble when I checked on a text message he recieved while he was sleeping one morning, alerting him that Wiis were available a Sears.com.  Text alerts are not serendipity! 

Well, as we were packing for our trip to the OBX, Casey used a bag to pack a "special toy for Coulson."  I was surprised because Casey doesn't usually buy toys for the boys, but I shrugged it off with only mild curiosity.  Then as were packing other bags, I noticed that Casey had slipped in the battery charger.  I was confused because we weren't bringing the XBox (what we usually used rechargeables with) and our camera doesn't use batteries.  Something about the look on Casey's face when I asked him about the battery charger told me everything.  Sharp intake of breath - "You got a Wii!"

It turned out that he did in fact buy the Wii in a moment of serendipity while shopping for my mother's day present!  At least he had the sense not to give it to me for mother's day ;-)  But he was saving it as a surprise for the big family vacation.  But his brother also found a Wii and brought it to vacation, so we had two games going most of the time.  A big change from a family who spent all their family vacations in a small cottage without TV or A/C!

Casey had always maintained that the Wii is more of a family game and that's why he wanted it.  I must admit that we have had fun with it.  Coulson is actually pretty good at bowling and he's working on his tennis.  Casey and I can play tennis doubles together and fight each other in boxing (I've won twice and we tied once, do you think he's letting me win? Casey says no, it's not in his nature to let me win, so "Go girl!")

But best of all, he downloaded the old-school version of Kid Icarus, a game I loved to play in the Nintendo days of my youth.  My friend Bethany and I used to play this game for hours!  Her mom got it at a yard sale so we never had the instructions for the game, so we had to figure it out ourselves, which made it even more fun for us.  (If you're following my links, you can probably get a better idea if Kid Icarus from the Wikipedia site, but I just loved how old-school the first link is - the horrible graphics, the horrible background, the poor guy who's running a web shrine to a video game from 1987.)  Now Casey complains that my Kid Icarus playing cuts into his Halo time (on XBox), so now we apparently need another TV.

On a related note, Casey got a whoppie cushion for Coulson, which accounted for a lot of giggles during lunch today.

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Wednesday, December 26, 2007

A Very Merry Christmas

We had a great Christmas Day!  Coulson was so excited about everything.  He got the scooter that he wanted, plus a whole lot more. He had his moments: "I want another Christmas present for me!"  But overall, he had a great attitude (And if you must ask yourself, "Why wouldn't he have a great attitude, it's Christmas?"  then you probably don't have a 3-year-old yet and you haven't experienced the massive and often illogical mood swings of his age group.  So yes, we were pleasantly surprised at his wonderful attitude.)  Charlie also had a great time playing with his new toys, but he didn't really get into unwrapping his gifts.  Luckily for him, his big brother was more than happy to unwrap his gifts.  His big brother was also generous enough to test all of Charlie's new toys for him to make sure they worked correctly.  And then he demonstrated for Charlie how to play with the toys.  Charlie is grateful to have such a wonderful brother.

Casey's parents celebrated Christmas with us, and then his aunts and uncle joined us for a delicious Christmas dinner.  Casey made a fabulous prime rib.  Plus he did most of the dishes and clean-up.  (I helped out when I could, but honestly he did most of it.)  So I had a great Christmas Day simply because I have the most wonderful husband in the world!  Charlie was taking his nap while we ate and Coulson played his new toys (which is very rare for him to play by himself!), so Casey and I got to eat a full meal with the grown-ups.  My kids never cooperate like this - usually Coulson would be trying to climb all over my lap and begging me to "come play with me" and/or Charlie would wake up right as we sat down to eat and refuse to sit in his highchair and thus be reaching for all the wine glasses and steak knives on the table and I wouldn't be able to listen to or participate in any adult conversation.  So I consider my dinner a special Christmas gift from my children, but orchestrated by God.

And Coulson was great when he opened presents from the aunts and uncle.  Every gift he opened, he exclaimed enthusiastically, "This is just what I've always wanted!" no matter what it was: books, markers, balls or robots.  It made the aunts feel great.  And the thing is, we never prepped him to say that - it was pure natural excitement.  Charlie was sweet to everyone and let the aunts hold him and play with him.  I'm still in awe that my kids were so good.

My favorite Christmas present came last night, although it wasn't so great for Casey.  A few weeks ago Casey asked me what I wanted for Christmas.  I gave him a list, but then I added, "You don't have to get me anything if you would just throw away your Xbox."  Let's just say that Casey plays video games more than I would like.  Anyway, on Christmas Eve, Casey turns on his Xbox and gets the Red Ring of Death, which basically means that his Xbox died!  Of course, this is a problem that can be fixed, but he must send his box away to get fixed and it could take up to a month to get it back.  A month!  That's great!  Well, this wasn't so great for Casey for obvious reasons, but also because his big Christmas gift was an HD-DVD player that plugs into his Xbox so we can watch DVDs in High Definition (I know, I know, it's all the same to me, but apparently the movies are so much better than regular DVDs?)  So if his Xbox is dead, he can't use his Christmas present.  Well, he found a little trick on the internet that helped him "resurrect" his machine temporarily, for about 4-5 days, but he'll still have to send it in to get completely fixed or replaced.  So we were able to try out his Christmas gift and we watched Transformers this evening.  I just hope the mail is slow...

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