Resurrection Time

Since it is a new year, and since I believe in the Resurrection and in the principles of repentance and forgiveness, I will take the nudging of my wife and resurrect this blog from its dormant state to provide a format to share some things. Time is fleeting, and as I get older it sometimes moves way too fast. Too many memories and cherished experiences, and I am getting too senile and forgetful.
The picture is of the garden tomb, located in Jerusalem just outside of the city walls. I have had the blessed opportunity of being there twice, once when I studied abroad in Israel in the Fall of 1989, the other when I was able to visit on a CES tour with my wife in 1998. The garden tomb is a sacred place, and one of the highlights of each of my stays in the Holy Land.

LA Zoo animals only (28 Dec 2011)

Traditional family holiday trip to Los Angeles and to the zoo. The weather was beautiful, so glad I live in So Cal!

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LA Zoo family (28 Dec 2011)

We had fun as a family at the zoo, it was great to have Brittany home from college, it was the first time our whole family had been together for awhile. We even brought Britt's boyfriend Matt along for the party.

We then scooted up the hills near the zoo to the Griffith observatory to check out the sunset which was a brilliant red at the time.

We didn't stop there as we then traversed Los Angeles (good and bad parts) to get to Santa Monica and check out the Christmas lights at the LA temple. Not a bad day.

Check out all the pictures here:

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California Christmas Family Park Tag

I know in different places Christmas time is enjoyed in different ways. We never have a "White Christmas" in California, and with the weather generally good we have celebrated during the break by going to the beach or Disneyland. This year we actually went to a skate park in Costa Mesa for the boys, and then played on the apparatus at Tiwinkle park. The kids have often played an assortment of "lava" games growing up, ie. you can't touch a certain surface or color of tile because it is hot lava or "unsafe". In this large playground the family played a massive game of "lava tag", where only those who are "it" can move on the ground, the rest on the climbing stuff. Each side gets to move 3 steps in the enemy territory, and it made for an eventful, and photographic, afternoon.

Jonathan in the bowl

Caleb flipping his deck

Brittany explaining the three step rule

Jonathan negotiating

Sarah after Hannah

Mom gets Sarah

Caleb hiding

Jonathan entertaining as usual

Brittany escaping

Hannah fleeing

Jonathan avoiding Hannah

Sarah hoping she is safe

Caleb spiderman approach

Sarah evading Mom

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GAMING SESSION: eight player flavor

It can be difficult to find decent games that eight players can play without dividing into two groups (preferred). A couple of simple card games we tried tonight worked well with mixed ages.

Incan Gold is a great little game (originally created as Diamant, now in its second edition as the incarnation Incan Gold) where all players are explorers in a ruin. You collect gems in the ruined temple, and decide each turn whether to return to camp. If you do you keep all the treasure you found. If you stay you can get more treasure, but also if you experience two of the same hazards while there you lose everything you found. For a basic game it has great tension and decision making, especially with  eight players. This is a top quick game for the younger folk in my family to pull out and play.

Saboteur is another small card game, my wife bought it for me four or five years ago and it can take up to ten players. All participants are either miners who try to build a tunnel by laying cards (in a Water Works-like fashion) to a hidden gold mine, or saboteurs who try to prevent that from happening, As nobody's role is known unless revealed through actions, it is a very interactive game of 'whose on my side?' It begs for multiple plays as gold is received each round you play and roles change.

Both of these games satisfy the 6-8 player range, play very quickly, and require some thought and decision-making that keep it interesting.

GAMING SESSION: Light & Serious

Holiday gaming at its finest. The Family & Friends edition found the Great Dalmuti (one of the better group card games) to be the hit. We also like to go full out with this game: We wear hats according to rank: The Dalmuitis (greater & lesser) are royalty, the Peons (greater & lesser) are fools, and the rest are Middle working class. Seating also includes a padded chair for the Great Dalmuti, and a bucket for the Greater Peon. The Peons also serve the rest of the group - it's good to be the king! We had quite a few work their way up in the ranks, while some experienced a serious fall in the social strata.

Turbo-Scrabble worked also well in the larger groups and got multiple plays.

When it got serious we broke out Puerto Rico and Bibliotheke. PR is a brain-burner with the many decisions and options at your disposal, and I was locked more than once in some serious AP (analysis paralysis). Considered a gamer's game and one of the highest ever ranked, PR groups many mechanics and innovative game ideas into one. Early quarries and a late surge in production and buying the Guild Hall sneaked out a close victory here.

With Bibliotheke we discovered some more good feedback and areas to slightly improve, especially in how the Black Market works and action point balance. It depends on the group of players, but I am considering putting in more direct attack opportunities. Victory points in the Event stack, using the Black Market and going for higher point books was the key in this session.

GAMING SESSION: Dominion dominates

Dominion is truly an awesome game, and the first expansion Intrigue only makes it better. The card game has simple mechanics of play an action then buy a card, with those two actions being further enhanced by other cards. The greatest aspect of Dominion is the replayability. Each game uses only 10 kingdom cards which inteact with each other to set the table for game play. The original Dominion came with 25 kingdom cards, and Intrigue added 25 more, plus there are two promotional cards to bring the total to 52 different cards. Since only 10 are used each game, the combinations are endless giving each game a different flavor and unique strategies.

Other games with great replayability are Settlers of Catan with a differently formed gameboard each game in addition to different values and scarcity assigned to each resource. The same goes for Hey That's My Fish!, with a uniquely formed gameboard each game of over 60 tiles - the added bous is that it plays quickly and often can take less time to play than to set it up! Carcassonne is another that creates a unique gameboard each time it is played.