Nice Christmas

Spencer had a good time yesterday, perhaps because most of the stuff Santa brought him was licensed by The Incredibles, including:

• Boots


• Underwear


• PJs


• Telescope/Projector (or TV as Spencer calls it)


• Action Figure Set


• Interactive Omnidroid (his favorite)

Spencer even picked out The Incredibles game for mom.

But it wasn't all Pixar. Santa brought Spencer his first Hot Wheels set, a couple of Dinosaur building sets, some paint, a Spiderman Playdough set, and even some Buzz Lightyear PJs.

Perhaps the most interesting (to Dad, anyway) toy Spencer received was the VTech VSmile video game/learning system. It's a relatively cheap unit ($49 at Toys R Us, colorful (purple and orange?), with a controller designed specifically for kids - the joystick and action button are both large designed for hands instead of fingers.

The graphics look like the old Super Nintendo system games; VTech is probably licensing some old technology (or even using some technology whose patents have expired, maybe?) and applying it in the 3-7 year old space. Strangely enough, this is related to what I do at work in the innovation space. Rather than overserving the market (with graphics and capabilities that 3-7 year olds would not appreciate), they are delivering the right amount of performance, which allows them to drive down cost.

In the afternoon, we had friends' over, deep-fried a turkey, and had a nice dinner. Spencer and Emma played with Spencer's new loot. And of course Brian and I spent plenty of time on the XBox (he killed me in golf). Amy even cut Molly and Emma's hair.