Be present. Stop worrying. And play.

Would you like to play a game? How about Global Thermonuclear War? Nah, here are some better ideas…

Switch it up for Family Fun

We’ve always been a big gaming family, and video games were always part of the fun. I remember the night we brought home Atari, our first gaming system. (I know, I’m dating myself.). I used to watch my mom play Space Invaders, and I remember trying desperately to hit that square “ball” with the rectangle in Breakout. Don’t even get me started about Adventure.

But, we were all amazed by Nintendo when it came out and fell in love with Mario. There might have been an iteration that I did not own (Super Nintendo, I think?) But, I’m pretty sure my brother had it. I bought the Game Cube when I lived on my own. Later, my husband and I bought a Wii; we also both had a DS. I even worked at a Game Stop while I was in law school. But, after awhile, life got busy and I stopped playing Nintendo for a number of years. Until the Switch came around.

I don’t remember why, maybe I saw the Switch while wandering around Target, but I asked my brother if the system was worth buying. (It’s not cheap.) A die hard, he said a resounding yes. By then, I had kids that were 5 and 8. And although video games are more dreaded screen time, I had such fond memories of playing Nintendo as a family, I couldn’t help myself. For Christmas 2017, mom bought the family a Nintendo Switch.

It has been a blast. Racing in Mario Kart throwing turtles at each other was the first addiction. Then came the ultimate addiction, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It may seem daunting as an adult novice. But, trust me. Go there. Let your kids go there. The game is beautiful and multi-dimensional. There is fighting, of course. But, there are puzzles. There are things to collect, horses to tame, people to meet, and recipes to cook. It’s fun to watch and play along. We texted Uncle Brian to get tips. A historical Mario fan, we even inspired grandma (my mom) to get a Switch and start playing Zelda. We texted each other when we finished a particularly hard shrine, climbed a tower or conquered a divine beast. There was all kinds of inter-generational goodness happening.

We’ve transitioned to a few other games now, Nintendo classics that have made their way onto the Switch. Last year, my husband got me Mario Party, the ultimate in video game accessibility. Made up primarily of mini-games, you need very little skill to keep up with the pack. And even if you don’t keep up, the game is so random and laden with chance, that you may find yourself back in the game because you were given a special item or were able to steal a star from someone else.

Then there is the ultimate button masher, Super Smash Bros. My family and I played that for over an hour last night, and we were giggling like fools. My six-year old was kicking our butts somehow, using his character to suck us up and spit us out, saying he was having us all for a snack. (Respectful trash talk during gaming is an important skill in our house.) The games are short so we were trying out different characters and smacking each other all over the screen in that fun, non-violent Nintendo way. There is something about playing full out with your kids, especially when they are little, and all being on a level playing field. It’s so fun for them to feel like equals (or superiors!) for a few moments.

And let’s be honest, sometimes you play with your kids to be a good parent, but it isn’t exactly play for you. You’re happy to be spending time with them, but it’s not what you would choose to do if you were trying to really and truly enjoy yourself. But, last night, I lost myself in the game. Amid all my responsibilities and adultness, I became a kid chillin’ on the couch. I ran around trying to smash everyone else, stomp on their heads, bonk them with a mallet, while trying not fall off the edge. I stopped trying to teach, to guide and to discipline my kids. We just played. It was joyful and magical.

Jigsaw Puzzles: Not Just For Grandma

I have a hell of a lot of fun doing jigsaw puzzles, although I’m not exactly sure why. I love the idea of building the puzzle.  Finding where everything goes.  However, I don’t really like building other things and I don’t love to organize or clean.  (I do it, but I don’t love it.).

I do love that there is an achievable end; although I’m not attached to it.  My husband always thinks it’s funny that I typically take the puzzle apart almost as soon as I’ve put the last piece in…no matter how many days or weeks it took me to put it together.  I take a picture and text it to my mom (another avid puzzler), and then it’s back in the box.

I love when people help me with puzzles.  I grew up putting puzzles together with my mom and grandma. (Me and mom below!)  Maybe I have positive associations with that.  One of my favorite things is having a group of people working on a puzzle together with a few bottles of wine.  Like my obsession with cooperative games (see post here), when you’re puzzling with people, you’re working together towards a common goal.  Teamwork feels good to me.

Also, while puzzling takes some attention, it doesn’t take a ton.  Plenty of time to sip your wine, eat homemade cookies, look up and check the score of the football game.  And, it’s not word-associated attention. Therefore, it’s easy to put together a puzzle while chatting about last Thanksgiving, your upcoming vacation, your job, your life.  And it’s mellow conversation.  Everyone is occupied, so there is no pressure to talk and fill the silence or move on.  Everyone is searching for pieces.  It’s casual and lovely.  And it could go on for a few hours.  Together.  If there’s a lot of wine, things can get down right silly.

But, if I’m alone.  Puzzling is fun too.  I can keep my often racing mind occupied looking for pieces while I listen to music or let my mind wander to other things with ease.  Hrmm.  Maybe I do know why I like it.

Save the World… Eradicating One Fake Disease at a Time

IT’S NOT NEW…BUT PANDEMIC LEGACY IS WAY FUN.

I haven’t had an uninterrupted night’s sleep in at least eight months and two weeks (the age of my third son).  I often look forward to hanging out with my hubby after we put the kids to bed.  But, by 8:30pm, I’m nearly drooling on myself.  Exhaustion takes over and the sandman calls.  (Queue Metallica. Or is it “cue”?  Too tired to look it up.  Anywho…).  Notwithstanding the current state of affairs, when we pulled out our game of Pandemic (at 9pm armed with wine and snacks) a few weeks ago, I was reminded of how time stops and the adrenaline flows when I’m in the throes of saving the planet.  Two hours went by without a single yawn or slow blink.  Good times.

Technically, what we are playing is Pandemic Legacy (Season One), Blue Edition.  It’s a collaborative game, which means all players are working together to win.  This my favorite type of game hands down!  In the game, your characters are fighting to contain four diseases creating chaos in the world.  Sounds like a downer, but it more strategy than gruesome sci-fi.  Before I explain how the game works, here is an example of Sean and me in full disease-fighting mania to pique your interest.

Ok, I won’t go into too much detail…don’t want to ruin any surprises.  But, here are the basics.   You play a series of Pandemic Legacy games across a fictional year.  The first game you play starts in January.  If you meet the required objectives to win, you move to February.  If you don’t, you play the month again.  Each month is only played twice.  (So I suppose if you really suck at the game, you can play it 24 times.  Otherwise, it will be less than that.)  As you progress through the year, the game play evolves because you are drawing cards, opening new parts of the game and making choices that affect how the rest of your games will be played.  You’re also tearing up things along the way.  It’s pretty amazing for a board game.

At the start of each game, you set up the board per the instructions, which are somewhat elaborate, and each player picks a character with special attributes.  You spend the game traveling around the world together curing and eradicating diseases.  However, at the conclusion of each turn, you draw cards to determine which cities will be infected with more disease.  If you draw an Epidemic card during your turn, you have to shuffle the discard pile of cities (already infected with disease) and put it back on the top of the deck.  This is how things get worse and worse for this sad fictional version of our planet.  On your next turns you’ll be turning over the same cards yet again and infecting cities with more disease, causing potential outbreaks.  It’s all very stressful in that fun, gaming sort of way!

Pro tip: Start Pandemic Legacy with enough time to play through the whole game (two hours?) unless you can leave the game out until you can resume.  You’re keeping track of wins and losses, so you don’t really want to stop a game unfinished.  It once took Sean and me thirty minutes to set up a game…debating which two characters would work best together, what special cards to put in the deck, etc.  We’ve had a streak of wins; so maybe that planning has paid off.  Or maybe we are big nerds that are too competitive.  In any event, as a warning, an hour may not do it.  Unless you’re really bad at the game.

There are a lot of rules in the game and the planning and strategy can get kind of elaborate.  Do not let this deter you.  Sean and I hadn’t played the game for almost a year when we picked it up again at the beginning of October.   You might forget some of strategy, but who cares.  Just play and do the best you can.  If Atlanta and Hong Kong start rioting…so be it.

Now, if the concept of Pandemic Legacy is appealing but the commitment-level is not quite your speed, let me suggest
Forbidden Island to start you off.  In this cooperative game, the players are on an island and must get four treasures and fly off the island as a group before it sinks.  Sounds nothing like Pandemic Legacy, but (trust me) at a very high level it is totally the same game without as many intricate rules.   In fact, this one is simple enough to play with my 9 and 5 year olds, especially since everyone strategizes to beat the game together.

I’m such a fan of cooperative games.  The teamwork adds to the fun.  If you have kids or super competitive friends, it’s great because everyone wins or everyone loses.  Either way, you just have a lot of fun playing together.  At least until someone spills their juice all over the cards and hides one of the treasures because they wanted the blue one, and someone else is upset that he didn’t get to be the pilot and also somehow his turn got skipped.  But, I’m sure that won’t happen at your house.

Adults Can Play Legos Too

My kids adore legos.  Unfortunately, they have about a ten-minute attention span for them.  So, sometimes it takes a week or so for them to finish a set.  Occasionally, to keep the process moving, I’ll sneak snapping a piece together myself.  But, this weekend, it was all me!  The fam gave me the Women of Nasa Lego Set for Mother’s Day, and I put it together on Saturday.  (As my oldest son notes, I waited a LONG time to put it together.)

    

First, it’s rad that there is a Women of Nasa Play Set.  Second, talk about a Playfull Human, the idea for this set came from a fan of Legos, not a Lego Engineer.  Sweet!  I have to say, I had a great time doing on my own Lego Set.  I’m a jigsaw puzzler by nature (that’s a whole other post), and this felt very similarly satisfying.  In a world of chaos, putting a small project in order piece by piece can be very psychologically satisfying.

If this idea even remotely appeals to you, you are in luck.  Lego has a lot of adult options!  On Sunday, we were at a toy store (yep, an actual, physical, toy store), and I saw some great option in the Architecture series.  My husband has put together the Eiffel Tower.  This series isn’t cheap though.  So, if you’re on a budget, you may want to stick with the Friends juice stand.