Hi there AlanL, and Welcome
Well you’re only as old as you feel IMO… 
Z80, 8086 assembler age 
here
Absolutely within the wheelhouse of the Xiao line of Devices.
BLE support is Very good BTW, the motor easy with a grove module attached. Check out seeed’s web site for those You hook the motor to it then it to the Microcontroller, You can use the Nrf52840 Xiao BLE , for basic Bluetooth along with some digital IO’s (consider some PWM) analog in and out. Super simple , super basic.
UP_a NOTCH…
Use the Nrf52840 Xiao BLE Sense version and add Tap to turn on and off or if you pick it up it turns ON , or orientit a specific way or pattern type of thing (built in Accelerometer)
Controls would be through a BLE app , you build with like MIT app inventor for android (free) or basic send receive like terminal commands with nRF_Connect for android BLE.
All doable easy if you make the choice. same goes for the ESP32S3 pretty much (no IMU)
but has WiFi. Start with what you have its easy to swap if you set it up right.
You use Arduino IDE? or PlatformIO?
hardware is pretty easy too with the dev boards they offer. Check out my Threads on here for the IMU , and displays.
get the basics down first selecting board (BSP)and USB port, Upload/download etc. and are you windoz, or Penguin ;-p
All cool and Possible with the Xiao line.
HTH
GL 
PJ