This Christmas I Fell in Love with the Nintendo Wii

I never thought that it would ever happen to me. I railed against playing video games on the television. I used to have harsh words to say about grown men playing TV video games. While I applauded the learning games for children, a man playing video games on TV was beneath me.

My fiancée decided that our daughter was old enough for a Wii and so Santa delivered one. I reluctantly hooked up the machine and watched as my daughter began playing her age style games. She learns very quickly and I was excited to help her and see how quickly she was picking up on the rules of the games. It made me proud to see her having so much fun with this machine. I was happy that I had been over-ruled in having Santa deliver that machine that was until I was forced to play a bowling game on this same machine.

Before I knew it, I was having a blast and believe it or not getting more exercise than I have been getting since my discharge from the Marines. Man was it fun. We started playing the game around 11pm after the kids were safely tucked away in bed and before I knew it three hours had passed. I was now so hooked that we decided to keep playing and after playing the tennis, golf and baseball game, the sun was coming up.

To think that I was yawning a few hours before being enlisted in making sure that the machine worked well and after many hours of play, it was like I had found my second wind. Wiping away sweat and laughing so hard that there were times I thought that I would wake up the children. It was the best time I've had in a very long time.

I guess the lesson is to try something before you pass judgment and that lesson was learned quite well this Christmas holiday. Now I find myself at a cross roads where since I reside separately from the youngest of my children, I may now have to invest in a Wii for my home here. Congratulations Nintendo, your conversion is complete.