My Holiday Gaming To-Do List

Sniffle. Snort. That's the sound of me snorkling and wheezing through my third cold in four weeks, dear readers. I'd like to thank all the preschool children who made this month of misery possible. (You're all lucky I don't own a taser.) What? Who said that?  Well anyway, we can't let a little phlegm get us down, since this is the time of year to remember the true meaning of Christmas: Extra vacation days that can be spent playing board games! The Best Husband in the World can't escape my germs anyway, and there's something wonderful about being wrapped head-to-toe in blankets playing games through a Nyquil haze. So without further ado (or disgusting references to phlegm), here's my...

Christmas Break Board Game To-Do List:

 1. Play The Da Vinci Code Board Game while watching The Da Vinci Code on Blu-Ray.
Yes, that's really the full unimaginative title of the game. And yes, I know there are many unnecessary parts of this plan, including watching The Da Vinci Code, doing so in Blu-Ray format, owning a game about said movie, and actually opening it up. But, you see, we got this game new in shrink at a live auction at Origins last year for one dollar. One dollar. It was sort of a joke that I even bid, and now I have to see it through. Maybe it won't be so bad? (Don't laugh!)

2. Give Small World another try.
I started out loving this game, once upon a time. In fact, it was one of my first real board games I ever got into. And now going back to it is kind of like having lunch with an old boyfriend who you made out with in school for the first time. Awkward, but maybe worthwhile. I "broke up" with this game last year after deciding that some of the races were just too unbalanced--mainly those damn reproducing skeletons (which I briefly banned from the game). But I think I may have been to hasty. (Notice I haven't traded it in yet.) Hey com'on Small World, baby, I think we can make it work.

3. Learn how to play Alien Frontiers.
This game came to us from Kickstarter.com, since we were one of the (many) original investors in getting this board game produced. It was a fun adventure to see it go from just a dream to a shiny, pretty reality, but so far all it's done is sit on our shelf. Not cool. You can bet your buns a review is coming on down the line pretty soon.

4. Continue the Clue marathon holiday tradition with my brother-in-law.
Every year he flies up to Michigan from Florida, and for the past couple years we (The Best Husband in the World, The Coolest Brother-in-Law in the World, and I) stay up multiple nights in a row into the wee hours playing game after game of Clue. What started as a Hey, wouldn't it be wild if we tried that game? idea turned into an amazingly good time filled with lots of meta-gaming, diagram drawing, and suspicion. We've also begun throwing Puerto Rico into the mix as well.

5. Print off the "Through the Seasons" expansion for Agricola.
If you don't know yet, YES! There's a downloadable expansion available for Agricola called "Through the Seasons." It's being hosted over at boardgamegeek, and I absolutely need to get my Christmas-cookie-padded ass over there and print it! If you are interested, here's a link to the expansion:
Agricola: Through the Seasons

If I forget to say it later this week, I want to wish all of the gamers out there a very...

Merry Christmas!

What's Better than Christmas Cookies? Board Game Cookies!

Who needs lousy ol' Christmas cookies with malformed angels, moldy green food coloring, and burnt biscuits covered in insipid red sugar? Any board game fan worth her salt (or his salt) knows that board game cookies are the way to go. Wow your friends with these holiday creations that will have them oooohing and aaaahhhing....or wondering what dark hole you crawled out of.

....Okay, let's face it: No one in your family will appreciate the carefully crafted replicas or obscure gaming references. But that doesn't matter. You'll know. And out there, us other nerds stand with you.

Need inspiration? Let's take a look at the work of some people who clearly don't have children or full-time jobs. Oh hell, I'm just saying that because I'm jealous.

Cookies of Catan

 

 

 Monopoly Cookies

C-C-C-Carcassonne C-C-Cookies

Giant Battlestar Galactica Cookie
('sup Cylons!)

Scrabble Cookies

...for people who really aren't up for a lot of artistic rendering....or frosting colors

 

Meeple Cookies

...in case you can't pick a game

...or if you can't take the time to craft cookies and fondle frosting bags, then just consider plating your normal Christmas cookies and using your retired Trivial Pursuit game board as a doily placemat.

Except you might want to advise your friend in the douchey shirt not to stick the cookies up his nose. Not cool man.

Ho-ho-ho! Board Game Geek Christmas Has Come Early This Year!

So, my husband and I are active members of the board game community, BoardGameGeek. If you don't know what "The Geek" is and you love board games, then you should be slapping your forehead right now since it's the absolute authority on all things boards and games. (If you are a member of BGG, look me up! I'm "wonderwitch".) And every year this magnanimous authority holds a giant worldwide Secret Santa exchange. Yeaaaa!

How could this work, you ask? Well simple, you sign up in November and a giant super computer positioned somewhere in Board Game Geek headquarters...named WOPR...randomly assigns each participant with a Secret Santa, who could reside anywhere in the world. Once you have your victim's gift recipient's name, you just check out their Geek wishlist for games, order, and ship. Then you taunt, poke, stalk, etc., until they have a general feeling of unease and anxiety.

Our sucker lucky target this year is someone who lives in.....oops....let's just say Europe (wouldn't want to give any specific hints!). I'm really stoked for the two items we sent this person. We worked off of his BGG wishlist exclusively, since it's our first year and didn't want to push our gaming agendas on someone quite yet. (That'll be next year.) It was an interesting adventure trying to find the games we wanted to send at European locations and in the right languages. And I temporarily went cross-eyed from converting Euros to dollars so many times. But it's all worth it. So much fun to surprise someone half a world away with a merry board game present!

And today was our turn! Our very, very kind Santa had his FedEx elves deliver our mystery gifts to our doorstep today. Yippeeee! Like two kids on Christmas morning, my husband and I sprinted from the front door (rudely slamming it in the face of the FedEx man) and jostled elbows side-to-side to get to the box cutter and begin opening our precious package. Our three year-old rolled her eyes. I swear. With mouths watering and eyes ablaze with early Christmas fervor, we found two a-m-a-z-i-n-g gifts inside.

The first one was a game that our Secret Santa had taunted us about, noting that he was going to "throw us some curve balls". Said curve ball ended up being a game I had never heard of, and didn't even have on my BGG wishlist: Infinite City. But you know what? I am so jazzed that this jolly (fat and red?) elf has so much enthusiasm for the game, that he sends a brand-new-in-the-shrink copy as a holiday present. Oh, you know it has to be good. That's like if you were to go to a new restaurant and someone in your party orders for you (okay, I guess that specifically would be kinda rude...but you get my point.). I cannot wait to try it and love it. And bonus!--it's two-player capable. If any readers have any feedback on Infinite City, I'd love to hear what you think of it.

The second gift was a different kind of curve ball. Yes, it was from our wishlist....but I don't think we dared hope that this would be a Secret Santa item. We scarcely ever thought we'd get our hands on a copy! The game is....Java! This is a Rio Grande title that's been out of print for over six years and is mega-sought after. And the copy we got? Yeah, it's gorgeous and mint condition. The opened game has protective sleeves on each of the cards in the "palace cards" deck. And it looks like it's never been played. My husband had to tie a lobster bib around my neck so my drool wouldn't land on the game pieces.

So if my Secret Santa is out there reading this, I'm sending a very big THANK YOU to you, and I hope you and your loved ones have a very merry Christmas!