Mannheim Steamroller - Christmas - Album 4 of 10

Album Title: Christmas
Artist: Mannheim Steamroller

Album 4 of 10 in the 10 Album Challenge

Thoughts

If you read the entry I wrote for Album 3, you know I chose outside of the pop/rock genre already.  Musical theater is a big part of my musical taste.

Christmas music is even bigger.

I know it's frowned upon by most people, but I listen to Christmas music whenever I feel like it!  It could be before Thanksgiving!  Like, in August-before-Thanksgiving!  Or in February!

So, of course, one of my 10 albums had to be a Christmas album.  But which one?


My earliest well-loved Christmas album is this one: A Christmas Treasure performed by Julie Andrews with Andre Previn conducting the orchestra.  I heard it throughout my childhood. [In my memory, the version of the album we had was distributed by a ... tire company? Goodyear maybe? I'm not sure that's accurate, but the album pictured here (which I have on CD and now digital) has all the pieces I remember.]

But when I was younger, I did not listen to Christmas music as frequently, and part of the reason for that is that the industry did not focus on making accessible, well-produced Christmas music which focused on the music.  An artist would do Christmas music (and they still do) and that music focused on the artist. (In my honest but not so humble opinion.)

Until two artists did things differently.

In 1983, Amy Grant released her first Christmas album, so it almost became my choice.

And in 1984, Chip Davis's Mannheim Steamroller Christmas came out of his Fresh Aire work, and made Christmas music something new, and at the same time, very familiar.

I could listen to Mannheim Steamroller's initial Christmas album on a loop for days and not get tired of it, when it first came out.  And then, Chip Davis made more!

Other artists caught on, and so eventually we got Trans-Siberian Orchestra (which is not for everyone, but is wonderful for some people), and Lorie Line.

And now that Christmas music is heard for more than the three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, there are enough pop/country/rock artists doing their own takes on Christmas songs that we could have very nice playlists with lots of variety.  I still think most of the artists who produce Christmas tracks today focus way too much on themselves, but in any case, we get options!

By the way, I've been to a Mannheim Steamroller Christmas concert.  It's well worth the experience.  The performers are excellent, of course. And the "invented for the music instruments" are cool.  But they know how to focus on the music and how it makes you feel.  Just like the album.

Games of Christmas 2014

It's time again for my annual post about the games which I played over the Christmas / New Year's holiday.  It's a long list again, and that makes sense.  I am a gamer.  I have raised children who like games.  Sherry and I almost always start our vacation already in the middle of playing a video game, and we set aside three days before the New Year specifically for gaming with the family and Uncle Paul, and this year we were joined by Uncle Mike, too.  (See 2009,  2010, 2011, 2012, 2013)

Without further ado, let's start with ...

Games New to Us This Year 

Splendor has to top the list.  It is one of nine (Nine!) new games I received for Christmas.  It is a resource acquisition game.  In many ways, it's similar to Bazaar, which I have discussed several times over the years.  But as much as I like Bazaar, I think Splendor is better.

The design is elegant, with a little randomness, but plenty of room for planning.  After playing it four or five times, I can already see more experienced players using a combination of defensive tactics along with their acquisition strategy, but it appears that a new player will have fun going through the process, and will still have a decent chance to do well.

Love it.

Sushi Go! is one of five games Sherry got for me, and one of the four of those which are planned to be a part of TableTop Season 3.  (Sherry gave me Splendor, too, but as far as we know, it's not one of the TableTop games.) We did not play the other three because the rules for those other three were long, and we try not to take a lot of time reading rules when we have so much gaming to do.

Sushi Go! however, had a very small rule set, and it was quite easy to learn and teach quickly.  As the box says, this is a "Pick and Pass Card Game" where players are trying to collect sets of sushi items as they play through three "courses" at a sushi restaurant.  I think I won once, and I lost, badly, most of the other times I played.  And I still had much fun!

The Resistance is a very tense, political game, likely to cause stress and distrust.  In that way, it's very similar to Diplomacy.  Each game consists of five "missions" which the members of the Resistance must undertake in order to win.  But each mission is undertaken by only a subset of the players, and one or more of the players is a Spy, who can force a mission to fail.

Thus, of course, every player SAYS they are working for the Resistance, but some of them are not.  If the Spies can cause three missions to fail, by convincing the Resistance members to bring them along on the mission, then Resistance fails.  So, lying and misdirection are key to the game, and other than the randomness involved in deciding who among the group are Spies, the game is all about trying to suss out (or conceal) the Spies.  Tense!  But fun!  Thanks, Adam and Marisa!

The Red Dragon Inn 2 is the second (duh!) installment of a game I bought myself.  I had played it only once with The Dudes, but I knew I wanted even more options for the game, so I asked for this as an expansion, and my parents gave it to me.  (Thanks, Mom and Dad!)

In this game, each player takes on the role of an adventurer who has spent the day roaming around dungeons, but now the group is relaxing at The Red Dragon Inn.  The winner of the game is the one who is not drunk or out of money.  It's pretty funny, and the characters provided in 2 seem quite balanced with the characters introduced in the original.


I think that's it for the games which were strictly new to us.  So now it's on to the long list of ...

Games We Had Played Before

Superworld  is the traditional game of the holiday season at the Will house.  We've been playing this Superhero Role Playing Game for over 20 years on or around New Year's Eve. This year, our group of heroes was sent on a mission beneath the Alaskan Highway, to retrieve a device which The Good Guys need to have a chance against some Bad Guys who are able to become immaterial.  The team included Anastasia, Foil, Solo, Toymaker, Phoebe, Phoenix (no, not that one) and Icebird, as usual, but we were also joined by Widget (he might technically be Professor Widget, but he's a teenage kid, so I have trouble calling him "Professor".)  We were all grateful that, despite having The Semester From Hell, our game master, Paul, was able to put together a scenario.  It was fun, and tense, and a bit scary and I got to run over a super-villain with a truck!  (OK, well, Icebird did, but that's basically the same thing.)

Magic: the Gathering.  Though this is one of the favorites for many of us, we do not typically get to play many games of it over the break, because it does not involve enough of us.  That was true again this year for the times when a large group of us was around, but there were several times when fewer people were available, and then some of us Magic players played.



The Great Dalmuti - Again, a New Year's Eve tradition. It's not fair, but then again, life is not fair. And we all play for fun.  We were happy to have Mike with us this year so he could join us in the traditional  Huzzah! when a person earns the spot of Great Dalmuti.  I actually started in the spot this year, and stayed there until Kevin deposed me as we decided to stop.




Skip-Bo is an old stand-by and must be played every New Year's Eve. We had a couple of 6-player games, and a 4-player game or two.

Strangely, I don't think Sherry won any games this year. I think cheating must have occurred!  (Kidding.)  [Correction: Sherry informs me that, partnered with Troy, she won the first Skip-Bo game played during the break.  I stand corrected; thanks, Sherry!]



Funglish has now been played in four of the last five years (somehow it was not played in 2012.)  I'm glad it made a comeback. It is really funny, as long as you're not too terribly interested in who wins.

Lucas won.  Try not to look so surprised. (Kidding again.)

Ticket to Ride Switzerland -  We gave this to Kevin for Christmas, and this version came with two maps - Switzerland and something else I forget because I didn't play it.

Leah won handily, though I felt like I was pretty close until the scores were talied at the end.


Whoonu - Making its return again this year, with a couple of brand new players in the house, this party game helps you get to know your friends and family. Mike and Kevin, the new players, seemed to have fun, even though they did not score as many points as others.  And is anyone surprised that Lucas won?  I thought not.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.  As I mentioned at the top, Sherry and I are almost always in the middle of playing some video game around Christmas.  This year it was the excellent Skyward Sword chapter in the Legend of Zelda series.

If I recall correctly, we were not quite done with it when Leah arrived home, but we definitely finished it before the big events happened.



Nintendo Land is the game which came with the Wii U when I bought it.  It's fun for several players at once, particularly in the games where the controller of the Wii-U tablet can play against, or cooperatively with, the other players.  We mostly did the games where one side runs away and the other side tries to catch them (a video game analog to "Tag") but we also discovered the cooperative game based on Pikmin, and that was cool, too. 




As I copy and paste from previous years, I am surprised to find that I don't have the following to copy.  I mean, we must have played them, right?  Well, certainly.  Except for the first one -- Adam hates the first one.

Apples to Apples - Yes, it's subjective.  Yes, it often seems like you have submitted the best answer and someone else's gets chosen for reasons known only to the controlling player.  But hey!

That's the game!

Outburst is a game we've owned for many years.  Sometimes we don't have as much fun with it when the younger generation is playing, though, because so many of the cards are old, and to be honest, not many of us "mature" players know 10 John Wayne movies, either.

But we pulled it out and had some fun.

Catch Phrase is another party game I thought we had played over previous Christmas gatherings.

We've certainly played it before in large groups, and the kids seemed to remember it well, so I think I just missed documenting it in previous years.

Careers is a game we played when I was a kid, and Leah remembers playing and enjoying it, so she suggested we introduce it to Kevin.  As usual, I picked too much Fame in my victory conditions, and ended up quite far away by the time Sherry won.  Leah was set to win on her next turn as well.  A fun old game.

Dungeons and Dragons is not typically a Christmas / New Year's game, but as it happened, the DnD gang wanted to get a chance to see Leah while she was in Rochester, and I had some non-adventure stuff to do with the players, so we all gathered, with families, for a dinner and then the players and I gathered around the table to get some treasure sorted out.


Pikmin - Since Sherry and finished the Zelda game, we had to start something else as the vacation wound down, and we chose Pikmin.  We also finished it before the vacation ended, setting a record for most Pikmin grown and least Pikmin lost.  That series of games is so fun, it's hard not to play them over and over.





So, that's 19 games I personally played.  And that total is only below 20 if you don't count:

Forge of Empires - I am still playing this game, because two family members and two Dudes are playing it.  I've completed all of the ages which have been released to this point. (Contemporary Era is the last one so far.)  I mentioned this game in late January, 2013, so I guess I have been a part of the game now for about two years. 

Dave and Buster's hosted the Will Family gathering the day after Christmas again.

I played fewer games this time, but this event is more about socializing than gaming, and we definitely enjoyed ourselves with the games we played.



I'll mention again that I am no longer involved in every game that gets played during the holidays.  There are too many of us to play the same game each time, so here are other games which I saw played, or which Leah told me were played:

• Star Fluxx
• Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries
• Ticket to Ride: India 
• Ticket to Ride: Africa
• Othello
• Battleship
• Lord of the Rings: Card Game
• Blokus
• Where's My Water?  (I don't know what this is!  I think Leah is kidding around.)

So, there it is.  The list is done.  Thanks to everyone who provided games and/or participated.  I still look forward to playing some of the games which were brought over, but which just didn't get in my mix.  I'll try to get some of them played before next year!

Merry Christmas from the Will Family

Favorite Foto Friday - Color For Sale

One of many memorable images from my visit to the Vienna Christmas Market.

Favorite Foto Friday - Thinking Christmas

While I was looking for summer photos to include as Favorite Foto Friday photos, I came across this.  I remember intending to post it last year, and never did.  It got me thinking about Christmas.  Then, Sarah asked me to think of some Christmas music for a particular task, so, naturally, I listened to some. So, while I do not wish to hurry the summer away, I am a Christmas lover.  So, I shall schedule this photo to appear sometime in the future, and it will be a nice reminder.

Games and James - Games of Christmas 2013

Each year, the vacation I take for Christmas is an extended period of time, always lasting through New Year's Eve.  During this festive time, we celebrate the holidays (in particular Christmas -- "the most wonderful time of the year") and we gather with family and friends.  We've also developed a long tradition of filling many of our hours with gaming, and the three days of December 29, 30 and 31 in particular are almost completely devoted to games.

I heard this year that Adam thinks of these days as the very best days of the year.  It's not hard to understand why this is:  Adam loves games, and he has grown up, his whole life, with this period of gaming surrounding him.  As a young child he could only watch, but as he grew, he got more involved, and now he anticipates "New Year's Gaming."  By the way my other children react and participate, I think the feeling is similar for each of them.

To commemorate the gaming which is such a big part of our holidays, I have written an annual summary of the "Christmas-time games" in this blog for four years now.  (See 2009,  2010,  2011, and 2012.)  Continuing the tradition, here is the annual "Snippets and Wisps" recap of the games which were played over the long holiday vacation.


This year, we had many new games join the roster.  I think I will start with those, and then move on to the older games.

Games New to Us This Year

Alhambra - I wrote about this game back in January of last year, after seeing it on the web series TableTop. I never did buy it, though, so I put it on my Christmas list and received it from Adam and Marisa.  I won the first game we played, and Sherry won the second game we played (and the first she played.) Still, it was pretty clear that everyone who played it enjoyed it.

Elder Sign - Here's another game I saw first on TableTop.  Convinced I would like it, and so would my friends, I bought it.  Still, it sat unopened until this Christmas.  The game is actually pretty fast to play -- Once You Know the Rules!  Well, the rules took a long time to read and explain, which was strange because I watched people actually play it on TableTop (video of the game is here) and I thought it was very well explained.  The game is a trimmed-down version of Arkham Horror, played without a board, and so it is another cooperative game, with all the players trying to defeat the game together.  We didn't actually finish (probably because it was time to eat one of Sherry's fantastic meals) but it was pretty clear we were going to win.  I must play this soon with my Rochester Game Dudes.

Ticket to Ride: Africa and Ticket to Ride: India are new maps, with some rules variations, for the popular Ticket to Ride railroad games.  I greatly enjoy this style of game, but I must admit that I did not play either of these during this Christmas vacation.  Why?  Well, as you can see, there were many games to be played.  And this type of game appeals to several of my guests who did not like playing other games (such as Dominion or Magic: the Gathering.)  So, sometimes there were two different games going on, and I had to make a choice.  Troy and Sarah own almost all of these games, and I see them more frequently, so I figure I will get a chance to play these at some point.  I certainly hope so!  The reviews I got from those who played them sounded quite positive.

Smallworld: Underground - Another Days of Wonder game, and another I did not get to play!  What makes this even more surprising is that I bought this game earlier this year, forgot I had done so, didn't open it until December 29, and had never played it before!  But still, I was busy with some other game, so Lucas, Troy and someone else played it.  They said it was good, and I believe them!  I certainly like Smallworld (it will come up in the list below.)  And while I did not see this version of the game on TableTop, I did see the original there, so this makes the third game on the "New Games" list tied to that web series.

Rayman: Legends (for the Wii U) - Sherry surprised me with this gift for Christmas.  We enjoy playing video games together (she usually watches while I play and gives me ideas of what to try next) so it's not surprising she would buy a game.  What was surprising is that I had not asked for this game.  I guess she saw a short review of it on TV somewhere and thought it sounded fun.  We started it after the crowds had left, and we are having fun with it.  It's a single-player side-scrolling game, with many options.  I will probably write more of a review when we have played more of the game.



Games We Had Played Before

Superworld  is the traditional game of the holiday season at the Will house.  We've been playing this Superhero Role Playing Game for over 20 years on or around New Year's Eve. This year, our group of heroes was sent on a search and rescue mission.  The team included Anastasia, Foil, Solo, Toymaker, Phoebe, Phoenix (no, not that one) and Icebird.  This year's scenario took some real determination and focus on the task at hand.  We captured a flunkie working for our arch-enemy, General Isotope, who has been a thorn in our side since we started playing.  This flunkie could have led us straight to the General's compound!  But, we are heroes, and there were people missing and probably in danger.  We had to put off our assault on General Isotope so we could explore an abandoned mine and attempt to rescue some ordinary folks from the clutches of unknown super-villains, while also attempting to avoid waking what we dubbed "Water Cthulhu" which was living in the underground Lake of Evil. Exciting!

Magic: the Gathering.  Though this is one of the favorites for many of us, we do not typically get to play many games of it over the break, because it does not involve enough of us.  That was true again this year for the times when a large group of us was around, but there were several times when fewer people were available, and then we Magic players played.  There were three 2-Headed-Giant games played, and a couple of Three-For-Alls.  I did not participate in the Three-For-Alls this year, because there were other games to be played.  Including ...





 Dominion. This is the game I have been most interested in for the past year. It might be my new favorite game (perhaps excluding M:tG.)
I wrote about it  before in this blog, and I've played it quite a bit since last Christmas.  Both games which were played this year included the Dark Ages expansion I received last Christmas.  And I even won a game, despite the fact that Adam and Lucas were playing, too (they are very, very good at Dominion.  Very Good.)



The Great Dalmuti - Again, a New Year's Eve tradition. It's not fair, but then again, life is not fair. And we all play for fun.  We called Mike as we started to play, to wish him a Happy New Year and a big Huzzah! This year the ones who earned their way to being crowned Great Dalmuti were Sherry and Paul, so I was always part of the crowd wishing the new Dalmuti Huzzah!





Skip-Bo is an old stand-by and must be played every New Year's Eve. We had a 6-player game one day, and then an 8-player game the next.  The game says it's designed for up to 6, but we figured out how to have two teams of four, and it was quite exciting.  I believe it moved much faster, and that's not a bad thing.

Small World is a really fun game I encountered because of the new web series "Tabletop" on the Geek and Sundry YouTube channel.  I bought it immediately and played it soon after.  I mentioned the Underground expansion above, which I did not play.  But I played this original game again.  I didn't win, but I really don't care much about that.  Honestly.  And I know this is one of the games which Tyler was around to enjoy, so that was a bonus.

 

Star Trek Catan - I am surprised to find that I have not blogged about this game yet.  It's a version of Settlers of Catan, but done in space, and with new rules which incorporate the characters from Star Trek (the Original Series.)  Personally, while I greatly enjoy the original Settlers game, I find this version to be much more fun.  I was glad to introduce it to Paul.  When it first came out, it was only available at Target.  I'm not sure if it's more widely available now, but I was very happy to receive it (for my birthday, I think.)

Lord of the Rings: the Card Game - I have played this game a few times with Troy and Sarah.  We were the only ones who played it over Christmas.  It's another cooperative game (I am quite happy these games are being designed!)  Before playing this game, I had never been involved in a cooperative game where the players lost.  This time?  The game kicked us to the curb, ran over us with its back tires, and splashed mud on us as it left us for dead.  Later in the vacation, Troy and Sarah redesigned their decks to have a better chance of beating the scenario, and they won!  What a cool idea!  Learning by losing, and then cooperatively redesigning to win.



Whoonu - Making its return for the first time since 2009, this party game is a game you play to get to know your friends and family. Paul and Sherry demonstrated their knowledge of the others by sharing victory, though if Adam had not mistakenly put another card in the sleeve when it came time to learn about Sherry, his "Scrapbooking" answer would have put Sherry over the top, we are sure!



Funglish was played in 2010 and 2011, but somehow did not get played in 2012.  I'm glad it made a comeback. It is really funny, as long as you're not too terribly interested in who wins.

Legend of Zelda - The Wind Waker. Apparently, this is a Christmastime game.  Leah looked back through my blog to see when we had played this last, and it was around Christmas several years ago.  In any case, it's been a long time, and as far as I can tell, I never owned the game.  I think it belonged to Lucas.  So, when the game came out for the Wii U, I decided to pick it up again.  The changes for the Wii U are not all that significant.  It is prettier -- it takes advantage of the High Definition capabilities of the system.  We finished beating Ganondorf the evening of December 28th, just before company arrived on December 29th.  For the record, we only had 12 Hearts of health, and we completed the final battle with a fairy left in a bottle.  I am glad to have it in my library of games, and I bet I will go back to it again in a few years.

Forge of Empires - I must include this as an Honorable Mention, since I have played this online multiplayer game over the break.  I've completed all of the ages which have been released to this point (Progressive Age is the last one so far.)  I mentioned this game in late January, 2013, so I guess I have been a part of the game now for about a year.  It's something I would probably have given up (Mike and Adam have) if I didn't have a couple of friends and a couple of family still playing.

Dave and Buster's - I haven't mentioned this before, but during many of our recent Christmas seasons, the Will family has gathered at this restaurant which features a large number of arcade and video games.  I can't possibly enumerate each of the games which were played, but we certainly had fun playing them!

I think I have listed every game, though I reserve the right to revise this post (I almost forgot three games as I was preparing this!)  As you can see, the Will House is a very game-filled house over the long Christmas-to-New-Year's-Eve break, and we enjoy those games quite a bit!  In the coming year, I will be looking for even more new games to add to next year's gathering.

But I would be remiss if I did not list the most entertaining part of Christmas and New Year's:  James!  Having a grandson around for all of the eating and talking and gaming was extremely special.  In fact, when we were playing Great Dalmuti, we assigned the Least Merchant the job of sitting out and watching this nearly-9-month old.  That position -- Least Merchant -- was the most coveted position in the game!


              HUZZAH!