We are on a 3D-printing tear.
Santa brought us a family gift this year: a 3D printer named Joy. X-Maker Joy also happens to be the model of the printer. Fancy that.
The printer wasn’t a hit right away. I had to go into full IT-Dad mode to get it set up, and we ran into some Wi-Fi issues that made it hard to keep our phones connected. I eventually solved it weeks later with a new router. I’ll spare you most of the frustrating details, but let’s just say it took a few hours before we could print anything—and for a while, we couldn’t print every day without resetting the printer’s wireless connection.
Eventually, everything came together, and Mom took over the app to help you and Matteo get printing. Now, weeks later, we’ve become a toy factory—turning out fairies, turtles, chubby dinosaurs, dragons, and more. That printer hums most of the day in the kitchen, and I’ve only partially joked (because it’s true) that Mom’s new part-time job is managing all the 3D printing.
You and Matteo color some of the figurines and fidgets with acrylic pens and leave others single-color. I’m always impressed by the detail you can paint with your still-small hands. And at the volume we’re printing, you’ve done a great job giving many of the creations away to friends who are always eager for a small toy. In that sense, Joy has been a gift to a lot of people. That generosity makes me feel good about the new family device—and helps me feel better knowing we’re not just piling up plastic toys.
Because of our early IT struggles, I wasn’t sure Santa had brought us the best 3D printer option. After more research, I realized a Bambu A1 might be a better long-term fit—especially for printing larger, more functional items around the house. After all, this is a family gift. I jumped on the remaining holiday sales and bought one, and we assembled it—along with a workbench—this past weekend. Yes, I went all in. But I’m glad I did. This newer, more robust printer, which Matteo lovingly and intuitively named Bambu, is cranking out high-quality prints and can even print up to four colors at once.
By the time you read this, I hope these 3D printers sound completely archaic. Technology is supposed to move fast. I hope that years from now they’re a quarter of the size, 100 times faster, AI-powered, and able to print 32 colors from a small closet. Why order things online when you can make almost anything at home from a few pliable materials?
The first thing I printed for you on Bambu was a pair of fairy houses. We know about a natural fairy garden along a trail on Harstine Island, and we plan to place a whole fairy neighborhood there to surprise and delight young hikers. We have plenty more printing ahead to fully populate it.
I’m really glad we have something like this that we can share and both get excited about. It’s a little harder to connect with your interests now that you’re a tween than when you were smaller and happy with simple toys and games. Now you’re deep into your own worlds—Wings of Fire, Warriors, school friends, dance classes, and inside jokes. I catch glimpses of these, as it should be, and I treasure the few things we get to do together. I’ll keep thinking big and creatively about more ways for us to connect.
Love,
Dad