Tom basically described the exact same childhood experience that I had with my original gray and green Game Boy (minus the foreign grandparents and international flights). I forget what year it was (somewhere around 1993 maybe? I was probably around 8-10 years old.) and we were leaving to head to my grandparents for Christmas. My parents always let my 2 brothers and me open one present each before we left. But, this time, they picked which one we opened. All three of us got identically sized boxes and ripped off that wrapping paper. I don't remmeber the last time I was so excited about a Christmas present. We even got these magnifying glass/light accesories that snapped on the top of the Game Boy so you could play in the dark and it would magnify the screen. I played my Game Boy every chance I got: every car ride to the grocery store, between homework and dinner, at the bus stop, etc. And it was awesome, AWESOME, when we got that adapter that played Game Boy cartridges on the SNES, IN COLOR! I remember you could even choose different themes that would decorate the perimeter of the TV screen (we always went for the one that looked like people watching a movie at a theater).
Tom, awesome column.