Mr. and Mrs. Kraus Blog

Christmas is coming! It’s December 1, and we just got our biggest snowfall so far this year in Minnesota. Plus, last night we put up a Christmas tree at our place (you can see the snow out the window behind the tree in this picture). And to top it off, my wife and I have watched A Christmas Story twice already. Oh, yes people, Christmas is coming! Lovely, glorious, beautiful Christmas, around which the entire kid year revolved. Well, maybe we’ve seen it three times now…

Now I’ll take a step back and talk about this last Thanksgiving weekend. We had a great time because we got to have lots of turkey dinners (THREE!) and my brother came to Minnesota for four days! It was really great seeing him. His wife took the cold weather really well too, so I have to say to her, props for that.

First, we went to our Grandma J’s house for lunch. It was nice to see Minnesota relatives that we hadn’t seen since my cousin Jacob’s wedding 2+ years ago. Then we went to supper at my mom’s house for turkey dinner number two. Grandparents came to visit there too. I really love talking to my Grandpa Ted at holidays. He’s a very wonderful man. When my dad says from time to time that I remind him of Grandpa Ted, I take that as a compliment.

We did a little shopping then on Black Friday. The wife got some shoes and a purse. But the greatest part was when my bro and I decided to get each other Christmas gifts while we were together! Our wives determined that this was a terrible, horrible idea. But we both got that gleam in our eyes when we realized we were doing it. I got him Super Mario Galaxy for Nintendo Wii, which we played a lot the rest of the weekend. I have to say, it is a great game, and tons of fun. Both of our wives even loved playing that one. He got me an expansion for Guild Wars called Eye of the North. It’s a PC game, which I wrote about in my previous article on Halloween. Also a sweet game. Thanks bro!

Then on Saturday, we went down to see some family in Iowa. Turkey dinner number 3, pump it up! Now, most of these relatives we had not seen for something like 5+ years. I had little cousins that I had never met! And some of my cousins had children too that I had never met. It was really cool to meet them all. One great thing about family members is even if you don’t see them for a few years, when you finally do, it’s like you just saw them yesterday.

We headed back to Minnesota that evening around 5pm, and when we got there we headed straight to the Twin Cities to crash at Aaron’s place for the night. My bro and his wife had to be at the airport Sunday morning by 5:30am and we knew it would be terrible to get up any earlier, so we wanted to be closer to the airport.

Thanks for coming up guys, and have a great Christmas in Florida! And good luck helping Mario save Princess Peach… and the galaxy.

Chad Kraus bro, computer games, holidays, Iowa, Minnesota, Wii

One of the first things I thought of when I heard about the Nintendo Wii and the Wii remote was, “Wow that would make for one fantastic Stars Wars game!” Shortly after that I heard rumors of a Wii Star Wars game that would use the Wii remote for light saber battles. Fantastic. Today I decided to look for a trailer to see how they might be coming along. What I found looks really great. I’m not sure if this is definitely the Wii game they are working on specifically, but it is definitely a next generation Star Wars games. It’s called Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Check THIS out!

Chad Kraus Wii

The wife and I have a Nintendo Wii at our house and we love it. It took me a long time to find a Wii in town, but when I finally did last January, we were happy campers. The first major game that I played through on our Wii was The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It was a very enjoyable game, and it has so many cool features that make it playable even after you beat the main quest.

One thing I loved about the game was how you could really feel like you were the hero, slashing your sword and bashing enemies in the head with your shield. The Wii remote and numchuck really add to the experience. When you want to slash an enemy with your sword, you don’t just push a button– you swing the Wii remote like a sword! It’s great fun.

Well, I went to IGN this morning and discovered this:

Wow. I’m trying to decide if it’s more nerdy, or more awesome! My only comment is I think they should have made it WAY bigger. It’s just a dinky little sword and shield, but still very cool. I like the idea. One thing is for sure. I will be keeping an eye out for a YouTube video that shows someone impaling their big screen TV with the Master Sword!

Comments from old site:

Written by Emii
Posted: Tuesday, August 7, 2007 at 9:12 AM

lol thats awesome! i want one of those packs! man i hate to break it that guy, but you can’t look badass with a shield the size of an overgrown fist and a sword the length of a butterknife, all the while playing wii. lol it was entertaining

Chad Kraus Wii