Christmas is over.  I’ve survived another year.  Sure, I had my fair share of ill-temper and general stress, but I survived to talk about it.  Every year I’m greatful for that.  I enjoy Christmas coming, and by the time it does I love to see it go.

It was my first holiday away from home, and I wanted to do something special for my family, but I encountered the same mental block I always do.  What do I get them that I know they’ll enjoy?  The only thing that ever springs to mind is games, but I’m the only one in my family that really enjoys gaming as more than an occasional hobby.  In the past I gave everyone games anyway, just in the hope that they would find enjoyment and magically be converted, but it never works.  I gave my brother a GBA SP once, and he’s hardly used it.  There is some small comfort, because his girlfriend has essentially claimed it for herself and begun what I hope is a fruitful relationship with gaming, but I still wish he had enjoyed it more.

Is this difficulty restricted to me?  Am I the only one who considers and discards game idea after game idea for my family and friends?  It seems that’s all I know how to give well.  When I give games to gamers, I give them good games that they universally enjoy.  But when it comes to my family I’m stumped.  Sometimes I even reach into my innermost creative recesses, and what do I come away with?  Settlers of Catan!  They like board games, right?!  Well, they like Life, but Settlers is probably a little too involved for their tastes.  And by involved, I mean “geeky.”

It’s difficult to break out of that mindset.  I can’t say how ecstatic I was to unwrap my shiny new Nintendo DS, my first game for it (yay for Mario 64 DS!), and a slew of other console games that are accompanying me up to Tahoe for my snowboarding vacation.  Gifts like that make me happy.  It’s difficult to understand that they don’t hit the same warm fuzzy spot for others.  It’s even more difficult to understand what else might hit that same spot for these alien non-gamer relatives.

I guess it’s not a problem only I suffer.  You know those well-meaning and sometimes-odd gifts relatives get you?  I get a lot of those.  I guess my family doesn’t have an intrinsic understanding of how games hit the warm spot for me, just like I wonder how tupperware could really satisfy their gift-receiving desires.

I’m going to try to learn from the gifts I received this year, and inspect them like science projects to better understand what I might be able to give others that they’ll appreciate.  I’ve got my fingers crossed for next year.  Hold your breath.

- Jinx

you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here