I woke up thinking about Christmas, and all the chores that need to be done. I haven't posted many gift guides this year, because I haven't been shopping. In fact, I haven't done much other than fold up a quick typed up list of chores, and then shove it in my purse. One of the things that I need to do today is write a holiday note and get the cards printed up at Shutterfly.
These holiday cards are always theraputic for myself. I spend an afternoon tying up 365 days of life into a one page letter. Yes, the letter presents a sanitized version of the year, but it is close enough to reality to amuse me.
2011 was certainly the year of the storm. We had two real storms, Hurricane Irene and the freak Halloween snow storm, that shut down this area. But the real storm happened last winter, when a combination of bad things swirled together to create a tornado that nearly shut us down. It became obvioius that we could no longer live in our old town. It would have been nice if a tornado had actually lifted our house and dropped it into another town, like in the Wizard of Oz. It wasn't that easy.
Last night, I talked to my friend, Robin, who lives out in Seattle. We haven't talked in a year, so we did the oral version of the year-end letter. While we spent the year, preparing to move, selling, moving, and unpacking, she traveled to Europe, she backpacked in the NW, and worked at her parents' blueberry farm in New Hampshire. I was envious. Other than four days in Cape Cod, we've been pretty much glued to the area.
The painters left. A few new pieces of furniture will arrive next Wednesday. I feel like the boys are in good hands at their schools; I can relax. The crisis is over. Next step, buy a plane ticket. We don't really care where. We just want to get on a plane and go somewhere. Not here. I fell asleep surfing plane ticket prices on Kayak on my iPad.
I need to run to Target in an hour and get Jonah an XBox. He has been front loaded that there will be no Call of Duty in our house. It looks like there are at least two great, non-violent games that he can play on the machine. I can't deal with video games full of shooting and drama, because I have had enough drama. I'm out of crisis mode for the first time in a year and it's such a relief.
Apt. 11d 
Beautiful Katamari, Forza Motorsport, FIFA Soccer 12 are all pretty good non-violent XBox titles.
I really strongly recommend Portal 2. The Orange Box (Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Portal) is a very good deal–the violence of Team Fortress 2 is cartoony, but you would need to have XBox Live anyway for that.
(You should consider XBox Live if you can afford it–though multiplayer opens another can of worms as well.)
I didn’t find Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 too violent but the first one does have a fairly tame sex scene along one branching plotline.
I’d argue that the violence in Elder Scrolls: Skyrim is worth overlooking because of the open-world exploration the game allows. There’s a nice essay from 1UP on this point: http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9091589
It’s a pretty amazing game.
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Yeah, Portal 2 and Skyrim are on our list. I’ve heard that Skyrim is beautiful. Off to Target…
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I hope that 2012 is a year you can just be and not have to react to so many wrenching changes. Sounds as if things might be shaping up that way.
The one console we don’t have is the Xbox so I can’t recommend games. Autistic youngest likes her Wii games particularly those that come with strategy guides she can study in depth!
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