I spent a good portion of the holidays at my grandparents’ house locked away in the back bedroom, and I absolutely loved every single minute of it!
For Christmastime meant pretty much the one and only time I’d get to see my cousins who lived out of state each year, and for those precious few days when everyone would gather for our family Christmas on my Dad’s side, we strived to make the most of it by playing as many video games as humanly possible. In earlier years, my Dad would pack up my Nintendo to bring and keep us occupied, and later my cousins brought their Super NES, and so while occasional comments about “the kids being anti-social, staying in the bedroom the whole time,” quite the contrary we were having a blast together, squashing Koopas and slashing Foot Soldiers and probably bonding more over those video games than the last generation would ever really understand…
This year for the first time in 11 years, I’m finally traveling home to revisit that family Christmas that I haven’t been able to attend since I moved to Florida, and I’ve got to admit that it makes me a little sad to think that our all-day gaming sessions are one thing among the many that probably won’t be recreated just like I remember. People grow older and family dynamics change, plus my cousins that shared these holiday gaming conventions won’t be able to make it due to other obligations. Sure, it’ll still be nice to chat and catch up with all of my other Aunts and Uncles, and even eat the family bread pudding like the adults do, but I’m not gonna lie that a quick game of Super Mario World would be fun, too! 😉