Games from Christmas 2009

The two-week vacation I take around Christmas each year contains many traditions, and there are even a few games that are traditions on their own. I don't suppose, though, I can claim that "gaming" is a tradition. Nevertheless, I certainly do enjoy playing games with my family and friends. The Christmas vacation of 2009 was no different. We played some old games, some newer games, and some brand new games.

Whoonu - a new game, a party game, a game you play to get to know your friends and family. I now know that Troy doesn't like mustard. That's important, don't you think? And Lee likes macaroni and cheese quite a lot -- so I will have to fix her some of my "Dad's Macaroni & Cheese" some day.

Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot - I can't tell you how many times I saw this game in Jimmy Jam's [sigh and sniffle] but never picked it up. Well, it's exactly my kind of game. It's a bit random, but it has lots of fun flavor.

Ticket to Ride Europe - We've been hooked on this game for a few years now, and the game doesn't get old, though experienced players have an advantage, so it's nice to have new players play with less experienced players if they care about winning. Still, like the other "train games" we play, much of the fun is in the playing -- building tracks, accomplishing routes, working towards plans.

Ticket to Ride Switzerland - This one is new to us. We gave it to Troy for Christmas. If you own Ticket to Ride Europe, you can play this one (it uses the cards and pieces from the TtRE) with two or three players, and it has enough differences to make the strategy slightly altered. I think I have to own this one.

Magic: the Gathering - Of course. Yet, we didn't play it as much as we used to. Now that we have so many people -- all adults -- around for the vacation, playing games that only involved two, or only involve half of us [the women don't play Magic] does not happen as often. Still, we played, and we had fun when we did. I got to see Troy having progressed quite well in his deck building, and I got to provide some advice to Patrick on his. And, one fun memory will be Mike loving to play my 5-color deck with lots of angels in it. I've renamed the deck to Mike's Favorite in his honor.

Eurorails - Well, I didn't get to play this personally, but it got played. And now I will have to find time to play it, or Iron Dragon, sometime soon. And, the new packaging is really great. I'm tempted to get it for myself just for the new "load tokens" not to mention the "chunnel" addition.

Mad Gab - This one is new to our house, but not new to us. We played it recently with Ann & Dave and other friends and had a blast, so we asked Santa to give it to us. He had to look quite a few places in his workshop before uncovering it (he already had many copies packed for other families, I'm sure) but he came through! That Santa!

Apples to Apples - A party favorite. Sherry won the first game so quickly it was amazing. So we played another. Lots of fun.

The Great Dalmuti - One of the games that is a tradition. New Year's Eve. It has to be played. It's not fair, but then again, life is not fair. And we all play for fun. Huzzah!

Superworld - This is the traditional game of the holiday season, because we've been playing this Superhero Role Playing Game for over 20 years on or around New Year's Eve. Paul creates a scenario, putting someone or something in danger, or creating a mystery to be solved, and our heroes must take on the mission. Icebird, Foil, Widget, Solo, Toymaker, Phoebe, Phoenix (no, not that one) and (the new character this year) Anastasia were approached by one of their frequent foes, who proposed a truce so that the team could stop the launch of some nuclear missiles. Each and every team member performed important heroic acts as the disaster was averted. Or, perhaps, they participated in slowing the contact between the human race and an alien species. We're still not sure. But it was fun!

Wii Fit Plus - Finally, since Sherry got this game for Christmas, and since its predecessor was such a big part of our 2009, we had to play it a few times and show it to the uninitiated. I'm quite excited by the new activities, which include riding Segways (reminding me of our trip to Washington DC), a much harder bubble game, and a game that lets you run an obstacle course as if you were Mario in a Nintendo game! (Pictured on the left.)

There were undoubtedly a few more games played - it's nearly impossible to keep track of all the game-playing in the Will Chalet - but these are the ones I can remember now.

When people ask what my hobbies are and I reply that one of them is "games" I don't think non-game-players understand what that means. This is what it means!