Home again!

I've just returned from a lovely visit with most of my family (we were missing the Texas branch). As mentioned in my previous post, I played games with the nieces and nephews, and even one brother and one sister-in-law.

The favorite games this year were Pictureka and Lego Creator (which I think is now out of print, but Amazon has some used ones). My brother got a Monty Python version of Fluxx for Christmas, which we tried out at a Saturday game night. It was VERY entertaining! Fluxx is a card game where the rules and the requirements for winning are constantly changing (i.e. in flux). One of the rules was that you could play an extra card if you spoke with an outrageous accent during your turn. My brother and his wife embraced this rule with gusto, as did their 12-year old. I love it that we can all cut loose and be silly together.

Tonight I introduced some neighbors to Pictureka, and it was well-received. If you live in my area and want to try it out with your family, invite me for a game night! :-) The age range is 6 and up, and it can easily be played as teams or individuals. We had 7 people playing as individuals tonight and it did not seem to take too long to complete. It gets faster as the players become more familiar with the tiles that form the game board, yet remains challenging.

My 7-year old nephew will now be referred to as "Gameboy" in future posts! (I haven't settled on a name for his older brother quite yet.) Gameboy and I tackled several games while I was home, starting with Pictureka and Lego Creator. The others were Racko , Battleship, Stone Soup , Blockus, SkipBo, and a Mario game on his new Nintendo DS. (He and I played the same game on the DS and traded the unit back and forth each time one of us lost a life.)

Good times!