We had a pretty mellow Xmas at Chez Lindroos/Pramas/Frein. We opened our gifts on Xmas Eve, which has been traditional for my family for many years. Kate was beside herself. You’d think the poor girl was being physically tortured as she waited for darkness to fall. “Can we open our presents now?” she pleaded all day. We had dinner out, at Cedar’s in the U District, and then came home and opened gifts. Kate, with her multiple grandparents and endless relatives, did quite well for herself. I was finally able to unleash the big family gift I had been kept mum about since ordering it on Thanksgiving: an X-Box. Nicole and Kate were both delighted. It came with two games, but I also bought Nik Knights of the Old Republic because I knew it was up her alley.

Nik hooked up the Xbox and started playing Knights. I was content to watch for a few hours. Once the girls went to bed, I gave it a try. I figured I’d poke around a bit, but didn’t expect to get sucked in. I’ve never gotten adept at modern controllers, being more of a joystick and fire button kind of guy. Well, wouldn’t you know I got totally sucked in and played until 1:30 am. I woke up this morning with Star Wars on my mind. Nik, of course, was already playing. She let me take over in the afternoon and I kept at until 5 or so. Nik’s been playing since.

I had heard good things about the game and I must say it lives up to them. It feels more Star Wars than either of the new movies. It’s like the guys at Bioware understand what made the first trilogy cool so much better than George Lucas does. The only downside is that we can’t play together. I think we’ll have to schedule X-Box time for the next couple of weeks.