Xbox in the House

This was a factor in Eric accepting his new job.

Discounts? Free X-box games?
I'm in. I accept your offer.

He held off on buying the X-box for awhile.
Partly for our kids.
We wanted to set a good example
and exercise self-discipline
because we've been trying to teach
the importance of saving and working,
waiting and anticipating.
And being grateful.

When I was 6 or 7,
we got our Nintendo.
My dad's co-worker or boss (I don't know which)
gave it to us as a gift.
I remember being so excited and so grateful.
What a big, expensive gift!
One I'm sure my family couldn't afford at the time.
We didn't expect it or feel entitled to it.
It was such an exciting surprise for four little girls!
To this day,
I think that man,
even though I don't even know who he is,
is wonderful and kind and generous.
Whenever I remember our old Nintendo
all these grateful, happy feelings come back.

Well, we can afford an X-box,
but I don't want any one of us
feeling entitled to have one.

However, the stars aligned last night
and Eric came home
with this big new toy.
Except we did not want to tell the boys yet.
We had Cub Scout pack meeting to get to
so there wouldn't be time to play it
and we were trying to come up
with a clever way to surprise them with it.

But after pack meeting,
when kids were in bed,
E got it all set up

so we could play some Dance Central.

We stayed up late dancing
and still didn't have a good way
to tell the boys.
We just left it hooked up and decided
to see how long it would take until they noticed.
As it turns out,
not long
at all.
Kyler had been up maybe 5 min.
He was in the kitchen pouring his breakfast cereal
when he excitedly announced to us
that there was an X-box over there.
What?! Where?!
When Kacin got it up,
it was the same.
Maybe 5 min. and he noticed.
Honestly, if I hadn't seen Eric set it up,
there would be no way that I would've noticed that thing.
Kudos to these boys for their observation skills.
E got so many hugs and there were some big smiles.
It's always fun to see the boys get excited about something.

I have a pretty good idea what we will be doing tonight.