The New Year....and the Wii

So, it is 2008, can you believe it? It seems like just yesterday I was a first-grader in LaGrande, Oregon. Now, I have a first-grader. Go figure.

In the spirit of New Year's resolutions (or revolutions depending on your opinion) we sat down as a family and made some goals for 2008. Each member of the family got to contribute one goal--we're starting easy here; we don't want to overwhelm ourselves.

When we got to Maren she said, "I think we should go bowling more often this year." [What, where did that come from?] Then Sam pipes up, "Yeah, and I don't think we should go to the bowling alley to bowl. I think we need to bowl at Taylor's on their Wii." Nice.

So now, not only do we have a first-grader, we've got a first-grader who is, whether he realizes it or not, beginning to be influenced by the "but the neighbors have one/keeping up with the Jones" mentality. Since the Taylors are not going to be overly keen on us showing up anytime to bowl on the Wii we're faced with the dilemma of do we get one or do we become the only family on the block without a Wii? Taking the latter approach sets my kids up to learn the fine art of mooching--not entirely a bad skill. (After all, mooching is pretty much how I ended up riding the bus only a handful of times in high school when I didn't have a car.) With careful planning and time management, Sam can effectively bowl at just about all of his friend's houses and never have to step foot in a bowling alley again.