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       iChristmas Updates
       iDecember 26th, 2017
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       i
       iDo you have friends or family who send you one of those
       iend-of-year newsletters as a Christmas card? If you're not
       ifamiliar, they tend to be summaries of the major events and
       iachievements of the year for each family member. They're often
       iformatted badly and feature a giant family photo as a header. All
       iin all, super cheesy.
       i
       iI thought about writing one of those here as a Gopher Christmas
       iUpdate, but I think I'll spare everyone. Instead I just wanted to
       idrop a couple notes about how my Christmas day went.
       i
       iMy son is five and the absolute perfect age for Christmas
       iawesomeness. He was really into everything about the season from
       ithe start. This year he was paying attention to all the holiday
       isongs and asking us what they were about. We watched about 15
       iChristmas movies, including such classics as Home Alone and Ernest
       iSaves Christmas. We drove around to look at lights, and we looked
       iat Google Earth to talk about Santa and his travels. Life has been
       ipretty good this season.
       i
       iOn Christmas morning he had a bunch of presents to open and a few
       isurprises from Santa. The toys were all a big hit and he managed
       ito play with just about everything all in one day. Although there
       iwere a lot of things he asked for, there are two surprise gifts
       ithat I expect to become the favorites in the long run:
       i
       i  1) Legos! I got the classic lego box with 144 pieces for him.
       i     I don't want him to get into Lego Sets. They're too expensive
       i     and too restrictive. He seems to be of the same mind. He
       i     built a whole city last night, complete with rotating
       i     restaurant tower and space ships. In a couple months I'll
       i     bust out all my legacy legos and toss them his way as well.
       i
       i  2) GameBoy Color! I grabbed one of these at a cool game shop in
       i     Myrtle Beach. I also picked up all 3 Zelda games for the
       i     system, Pokemon Silver, and Super Mario World. He's still
       i     a bit young for the games, but he likes watching me play
       i     Nintendo (he has my old system) and he tries occasionally.
       i     I expect this to sit around for most of the year, but it'll
       i     prime him for some amazing classic gaming. 
       i     
       i     I'm working as hard as I can to build an appreciation for
       i     imagination in his play and games. The classic NES and GB
       i     games fit right in. They're simplistic, but also challenging.
       i     He worked with me, directing my choices, as we beat The
       i     Guardian Legend earlier this year. I think it's good for his
       i     growth to experience games that really challenge you and
       i     don't let you just skip the hard parts or show you how to get
       i     by with a ghost. Trial and error and perserverence!
       i
       iSpeaking of games that require perserverence, I beat the first
       iplaythrough of Escape Goat last week and I'm working on the second
       iset now. There's some insanely tricky boards. If you like puzzle
       igames, or goats, or both, pick it up on GOG or Steam.
       i
       iI hope you all had a good holiday. Cheers
       i