Even though I dragged my Xbox 360, PS3, DS and PSP (and iPhone?) through airport security, every system remained stowed away during my nearly two-week visit home. I had every intention of playing through a few games, but it never occurred. Weirder still, this happens to me every year. The only game I played was “Rolando” on my iPhone.

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In addition to lugging my Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in a heavy bag, I also had a small plastic baggy containing copies of “Fable II,” “Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe,” “Dead Space,” “Mirror’s Edge” (for time trials), “LittleBigPlanet” (my most criminally ignored game of 2008), “Left 4 Dead,” and “Gears of War 2.” I remember remarking to Stephen before vacation that I’d like to finish “Dead Space,” “LittleBigPlanet” and “Gears of War 2.”

I didn’t finish (or start) any of them.

Every year, I pack away most of my game consoles – this year, Wii was left behind – with the intention of using vacation time to catch up with my back log. All break long, I read Facebook and Twitter updates of friends and industry colleagues going on day-long video game binges.

There are few times during the year that I’m able to completely separate myself from the games industry. Almost all of my friends in San Francisco are connected to video games, but it’s the opposite situation at home. At most, my friends will play “Rock Band” or “Wii Sports,” but by and large, none of them play video games on a regular basis. They barely know what I do for a living.

Since I only see these friends once a year, most of my free time is spent hanging out with them until absurd hours in the morning. Rinse, repeat. This year was no different, though there were complications. My parents’ HDTV doesn’t accept HDMI for my PS3 and I’d forgotten my Xbox 360 controller charger. It was almost a relief, though, because it forced me to do into something I don’t do nearly enough: reading.

So, I read, and blissfully ignored reading, writing or talking about video games, instead reading through bits of Rick Perlstein’s “Nixonland” and the entirety of Cormac McCarthy’s terrifyingly depressing yet surprisingly uplifting post-apocalyptic novel “The Road.” I even caught up on the latest, hilarious “Scott Pilgrim” and took in most of Barack Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope.”

That’s was more reading than I’d done in all of 2008. I liked that. I wish I had more times where I could escape from video games, but my job makes that nigh impossible. But at least I’ve recognized one time per year that can happen.

Am I the only one who accidentally ignored video games over the holidays?