Fine Motor Skills

So, today the kids are home from school. It's their first official day of Christmas vacation. I have been encouraging them to spend the day playing Super Mario Brothers 3, an activity I affectionately refer to as "strengthening their fine motor skills". "Strengthening their fine motor skills" is a fantastic activity, because it also serves to "keep them out of my hair".

I left them to it all morning as I cleaned up after breakfast, did some laundry, and dabbled on the computer for a while. When I went up stairs to tell them to come down for lunch, they were already on Level 2 (remember, the level with the dancing cacti and the quicksand?).

Now, I distinctly remember that it took me months to get this far as a kid! I said to them, "How did you get this far already?" To which Sam answered, very quickly and seriously, "talent."

I guess kids nowadays learn on more complicated games, so the vintage games seem easy to them? It's kind of a shame that super graphics are needed now to sell systems and games. As kids, we were perfectly happy to play with the simple, left to right, prehistoric cartoon Mario. The simple games were fun.

I sat cross-legged on Sam's bed for most of the afternoon and played the game with them. It was a very nostalgic feeling. If the kids with me hadn't been my own, I could have imagined that I was seven years old again. playing with my sister, or the neighbours kids, or whoever. \

I think I'll bake cookies this evening. What's Christmas without cookies?

Christmas Shopping is Best Done After Dark

Tonight I finished Christmas shopping for the kids - actually, I had thought I was finished last week, but their grandmother called today and asked us to do her shopping for her because she now feels too old to leave her house, so I did some more shopping.

I went out with a goal. I was going to Wal-Mart to buy Mousetrap for Vicky, and Twister for Sam. (Picture it. The thought of Sam playing Twister is adorable, isn't it?) Wal-Mart was sold out of Mousetrap, but I managed to find the second Ice Age movie, so I did get a gift for each kid.

Sam complained the whole time we were gone. He's going through a phase where he doesn't want to leave the house - ever - and it didn't help that we have the new/old video games to keep him busy at home. We got through it, though, and while I was out I bought a couple of bargain bin DVD's (Christmas Vacation and Rain Man) and two George Orwell books (1984 and Animal Farm) for five bucks each. So now I have more books to add to the pile of books I haven't fount time to read yet. If I set a large, circular piece of wood across said pile, I'd have somewhere to set my coffee.

Anyway, we did all of this after dark, and the traffic wasn't so bad. We even managed to find a parking spot at Wal-Mart without having to walk six miles. Lesson learned.

The colour on our TV is still screwy, but Christmas Vacation is on, so I'm going to go watch it. (Yes, I bought the DVD today, but we're watching it on TV with the commercials.)

Oh, and I'm kinda sobbing because Brittany Murphy died. Not that I was a huge fan or anything, but Clueless was a great movie. I still love it.