The best Christmas gift

My sister in law got our son something called a Perplexus for Christmas. I'd never heard of it before, but when we got home and my son asked me to help him do it, instead of helping him, I took over like I was one of those seagulls in Finding Nemo: "Mine! Mine! Mine!"

Anyway, this is truly the greatest Christmas gift I've gotten in years. It's fun, challenging, and ingenious at the same time. So what is Perplexus? It's a 3-D puzzle game where you have to navigate a small metal marble through a complicated obstacle course enclosed in a transparent plastic sphere. There are bridges and traverses, parts that swivel and rotate, and death defying drops. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but it is truly one of the funnest games I've ever played. It's not easy. The puzzle consists of three different sections, and each section has one or two difficult parts that will take several attempts to master. In a way, the game reminds me of what it's like to build a successful product. You need to keep iterating until you find the perfect solution instead of just giving up and moving onto something else.

Anyway, it made me realize that the best gifts are the gifts you didn't even know you needed in your life (including gifts intended for your 7 year old son). If you are ever looking for a fun gift to give, I couldn't recommend the Perpluxus enough. Below is a video of someone demonstrating the entire maze from 1 to 100.