Gaia and I have been spending a lot of time in the Mushroom Kingdom lately. And let me tell you this: New Super Mario Brothers Wii is both a blessing and a curse. It's great fun that Gaia can play along with me, carefully ensconced her her protective bubble until we get to a flag, at which point she will scream that she wants me to let her out of the bubble. Once I do, she will hop on to the flag before me and exclaim: "I Beat You, Daddy!"

The curse? It's a goddamn hard game. Especially when you have a little bubble floating around during boss fights that gets you killed every so often. And, it's unforgiving. It's a Mario game. Mario is stupid and falls in lava and dies a lot. That's what Mario does. He's lame that way. If Mario had half a brain, he'd leave the Mushroom Kingdom forever and head back to Brooklyn where he could rake it in as member of UA Local No. 1. But no. He'd rather get his ass kicked again and again by some cheaply placed Bullet Bill. Whatever Mario.

Anyway, my mismash of love/hate feelings for Mario have not yet sullied Gaia's feelings toward him, as evidenced by this pair of drawings found in the back seat of my car this morning. Enjoy Gaia's drawings of Mario and Luigi.

Thanks for all your time and attention this year.
The world is a big place, and we know you have a lot of things fighting for your attention.
We're so grateful that we've slouched our way into yours.