Enjoying new games this week

With the kids out of school for two weeks and myself having time off from work during the holidays, it’s a fantastic time for playing board games!

To add to the holiday fun, we’ve had a very white Christmas.

Aside from shoveling the driveway and walks many times over the last week, we love having thick blankets of snow everywhere. The deep snow also makes for a great time to cozy up inside near the fireplace and watch movies and play games.

We’ve had our Star Wars run (watching episodes 1-6 over the last month in prep for The Force Awakens last week), as well as a handful of Harry Potter movies. And we’ve had some great laughs playing Just Dance, Mario Party 9, and Rayman Raving Rabbids.

We also took advantage of the fresh snow on some good sledding hills nearby.

And of course, we’ve played a bunch of board games.

While we’ve played a few games from the game closet, most of the games we’ve played this week are new games.

The 10 new games we’ve played so far this week are:

• Last Spike
• Awesome Kingdom: The Tower of Hateskull
• Love Letter: Batman
• Sheriff of Nottingham
• Machi Koro
• Dice City
• Roll for the Galaxy
• Between Two Cities
• 7 Wonders Duel
• Smash Up: Monster Smash

Of those 10, the games hitting the table the most are Sheriff of Nottingham and Love Letter: Batman – getting almost daily plays of each.

Heading into the holidays, our list of “next games to review” was already loaded with many great games we’re excited to tell you about.

And with this new batch of games, we’re looking forward to getting even more reviews for you.

But we’re not done playing new games yet. We still have a bunch of new games we got this month anxious for their turn at the table:

• Steampunk Rally
• Steam Time
• Cosmic Encounter
• Rattlebones
• Indigo
• Gemblo
• Dvonn
• Timeline: Music & Cinema
• Rialto
• Legends of Andor
• Café International
• Ninja All Stars
• Black Handed Henry’s Potion Party
• Super Motherload
• Pandemic Legacy (knowing that once we start this, it may take over our game playing time, we’re holding off a bit from starting.)

With only a few days of break left, I’d love to play them all.

But, unfortunately that most likely won’t happen this week. It’s not because learning that many more new games takes a bunch of time. But because playing games take a back seat to family emergencies.

Game-playing mode ebbs away when somber times set in. And a trip to the hospital this week by my father-in-law has turned more serious than expected.

So while we pause playing new games for a bit, we’d appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

And best wishes to your family, wherever you are, in the new year!