-I hope he’s gonna like it.

-Well of course he’s gonna like it, he asked for it.

-Yeah, I know, but... you know, they change their mind a lot at that age...

-He’s been jumping up and down, screaming about it for months. I’m constantly running out of Tylenols.

-Yeah, well... they still change their mind a lot at that age...and what if it isn’t as great as he thought? The thing’s brand new on the market, it could totally crash and die in our cold consumerist hands at any second.

-Sure.

-Well, alright, I’m exaggerating. But it could still happen.

-Why are you so nervous all of a sudden?

-Well, you know... it will probably be the very first Christmas he’ll remember, I want him to have the best possible memory of this... Also, we spent a whole lot of money for this. Just a LOT.

-You know you freak out a lot for no reason, right?

-That’s part of my charm, though, isn’t it?

-Perhaps.

-Knew it.

-Stop worrying, sweetie, I’m sure it’ll be all worth it...

And worth it, it was. I still remember the glimmer in Jacob’s little eyes as he unwrapped the big box Santa left him, the screams of joy when he finally saw its content: the newest video game console on the market, the Core-X. Even since our little Jacob had seen the ad online, he kept asking for it, and now that it was here, in his tiny hands, he looked as though his life couldn’t possibly get better than this.

My doubts were dumb. Linda was right.

As he hastily ripped apart the remaining wrapping paper. The sight brought back memories of my own childhood, when I discovered my old console under the tree. Not a day went by without me playing with it for the first year or so. I loved it, there’s no doubt about that. Though I basked in video games during most of those early years, I had lost most of my interest in playing quite a while beforehand. The last time I had bought a new console, motion detection was still a big deal. That was, what, 10, 15 years earlier? Something along those lines...

Of course, this barely had anything to do with the Core-X, capable of motion detection, virtual reality, voice control, retrocompatibility with the previous three generations, and the highest of high-quality graphics. With it, you could play mind-blowingly fascinating games, the likes of which you’d never seen before. It can even play DVD’s and cassettes, Blu-Ray’s and all the other Ray’s. You can watch online streaming at the touch of a button, you can chat and read and watch and laugh and have the time of your life while you witness all your dreams come true, thanks to the Core-X!

Or maybe it was just a console. The best I could have afforded, from a company who seemed to be losing its touch. It wasn’t bad, you know. It was pretty good. The games were enjoyable. It even had some of the functions I just enumerated, like Blu-Ray and whatnot. A perfectly fine console, that was getting wrecked in sales by way better ones.

You couldn’t have told my son, though. He was the one who pointed at it, at the store, and wouldn’t get his arm down until we’d promised we’d tell Santa to buy it for him. Of course, I still had had my doubts, freakily anxious I am, but on that Christmas morning, as I looked into his eyes, there was no longer any doubt in my mind: he, too, had found love.