Christmas Game Haul

The long awaited Christmas 2012 season is here (for us, it begins with Christmas Day - December 25 - and technically ends on the Feast of the Epiphany in January). Our kids received lots of gifts and many of those presents were games. Here's a list of the game-related items that are new to our house:

• the Nintendo Wii U game console system (with Nintendoland game)
• Super Mario Brothers U game
• Kirby's Dreamland Collection (thanks Grandma & Pop Pop D!)
• Wreck It Ralph for the Wii (thanks Auntie Angela & Uncle Robin!)
• Labyrinth & 
• Uno Roboto board games (thanks Chuch!)
• Lego Heroica board game &
• Adventure Time DS game (thanks Grandma M!)
• Tiny Ray &
• Bad Piggies &
• Coco Loco &
• Angry Birds Star Wars iPad app games

Giving games made it much easier to shop for my kids: one game could work for both children (depending on the title, of course) and by mentioning only specific titles to relatives and friends, it was less likely that the kids would receive duplicate gifts. Despite the long list, no one went over-budget with their purchases.  (The Wii U console was the biggest item.) I would be remiss if I didn't mention the cross-media products related to games (such as the Angry Birds K-nex toys, plush Kirby, or the Dungeons & Dragons t-shirts that my son and daughter unwrapped). The blog posts over the next few days will probably relate to some of these new toys.

Getting games is a popular thing - on Boxing Day, EB Games was packed to the gills with people when hubby tried to go in to get another Wiimote that had the proper motion sensor system. I read somewhere on Twitter that 70 000 new users joined Minecraft (new Christmas gift accounts?). I hope our crazy, consumerist culture will be happy with what we have for now (I'm not a big fan of Boxing Week shopping and my fear of crowds is only part of the reason) and we can appreciate what we've got, especially when we realize that many others don't get a fraction of what we get.