So, my son's twelfth birthday happened on Sunday. I'm amazed he made it that far. There are days...
Anyway, he had a great day. It coincided with Mother's Day, so he made her breakfast. A bit later, we did the Happy Birthday thing for him. He had asked for something interesting for his birthday: He wanted mail. He wasn't asking for presents, he just wanted to get a couple of cards in the mail. Well, my wife is really good at this sort of thing. She put it out on Facebook that she was asking for people to send birthday cards to our son. The response was, in a word, awesome.
He got mail, alright; nearly forty cards from people, most of them total strangers. He got Scooby Doo, squirrels, Transformers, and all sorts of things that were really fun for him to read. I believe she posted the videos on Facebook; his reactions were amazing.
The best part was that he had seen four or five of the cards in the mail on Friday. I explained to him that he couldn't open them until his birthday, and that I was going to put them away so his younger brother wouldn't open them early. He didn't like it much, but I'm the Dad, so I win.
So, we handed him the five cards on their own, then let him open the presents from his family. He got a mini-Rubik's Cube, some glow-in-the-dark stars for his Harry-Potter-style book-cupboard under the stairs, and the titular Exploding Kittens game, which I had never heard of before. Thinking he was done, he was about to get up when I informed him that he had received the mail because of his mother's efforts to get it for him. After he thanked her, I then told him that there were a couple of others, and dumped the pile out of the bag. His eyes bugged out of his head, and his jaw dented the table when it dropped. It was a great time to be a parent.
He's writing thank-you notes to the people who gave return addresses, which is important. And he convinced his older brother (who will be 18 in November) to ask for mail, too. I don't think he's going to get the same thing, though. The twelve-year-old wasn't expecting what he got; the teenager does, which takes away from the experience.
Now, as for the Kittens...that is one weird game. It's funny, and it plays quickly. The object is to not draw an Exploding Kitten card, or rather to be the sole survivor when everyone else picks one first. The cards are hilarious (the Swarm of Bat Farts is particularly memorable, as is the 1,000-Year Back Hair Attack), the art is appropriately silly, and everyone had a good time. I suppose I can recommend it, since it's suitable for any age. Kids will love the silliness, and they'll pick up on the strategy easily enough. Adults will just shake their heads at the absurdity of it all, but they'll still play it, because what else are you going to do when you're still stuck at home by government fiat?
I mean, if you're not into playing games, you could always read a book. I would recommend Best Served Cold, the latest Cameron Vail mystery, available now on Amazon.
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