Cheryl gave me Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga for Christmas this year. I don't play a lot of RPGs, but this game is really really fun, not monotonous like many of the RPGs I've played. It also comes with the original Mario Bros. game, and you can play the Mario Bros. multiplayer battle game with 2-4 GBAs. For 2 player games you only need one cartridge! Shane and I had a blast with that over the last week.

Another hugely fun game we (Cheryl) got this year (from Santa, thanks!) was Pac Man vs. for the GameCube! You have to have a Game Boy Advance and the GameBoy/GameCube link cable to play this one, but it's worth it. The person using the GameBoy plays PacMan (on the GameBoy screen), and 1-3 players on the GameCube play the ghosts on the TV. Pac Mac tries to avoid the ghosts, as usual, and the ghosts chase Pac Man (of course). Each ghost has a separate, limited view of the map. When a ghost catches Pac Man, the player playing the winning ghost takes the GBA to play Pac Mac, and the player that was caught takes the GameCube controller to play as a ghost. And on it goes until one of the players has a set number of points. Ghosts can get points by eating fruit, and it increases their field of vision temporarily. It's awesome fun.

I took the week off between Christmas and New Years, and it was really good for me. I really needed the break, I've been burned out since August. I felt a lot better by the 28th or so, I could feel the stress I've been feeling fading. I got to spend a lot of time with my friends and family, got to relax a lot, and played a lot of games (video/board/card/etc). It was a great week all around.

One of my goals for this year needs to be to take a couple weeks off (at least) to keep my body, mind and spirit recharged.