One of the things that Tom and I have always enjoyed doing is playing board games.  I grew up with a family that played lots of games:  Yahtzee, Aggravation, and Chutes and Ladders were just a few of our favorites.  When we would get together with extended family – cousins – we would play more board games.  I remember playing “Nancy Drew Mystery” with my Aunt Ann.

Tom, as an only child, didn’t have lots of people to play board games with, but he loved to play as well growing up.  When we met in college we played board games (and lots of Euchre) with our friends.  Of course, all of this was in the days before video games, but we still prefer board games and the interaction they provide.  These days we like to play Apples to Apples, Dominoes, Clue, Settlers of Catan.  We are always looking for new games to try.  John and Jackie like to play board games so we play a lot when we visiting them.  My parents like to play games too – on their recent visit they beat us at Euchre.  In fact, we lost one game as badly as I can every remember losing a Euchre game.

When Devon and Darien visited last week, we were delighted to learn that Darien loves to play board games also.  We didn’t have as much time to play as we would have liked (is there ever enough time to play games?) but we enjoyed playing TransAmerica together.  This is one of our favorite all-time board games because it is easy to learn, doesn’t require much set-up, goes quickly, and even beginners have a pretty good chance to win.  Unfortunately TransAmerica is out of copyright, so you have to do some searching to find it for sale, but we pull out our game whenever there are four people who are willing to try it.

Darien loves to win.  Devon is a pretty non-competitive person, so he is usually happy just to grasp the rules of the game.  Of course, Tom and I can be pretty competitive.  Fortunately, there is enough luck with TransAmerica that anyone can win anytime.

We also played Wordsworth (a great car game), Phase 10, Outburst, and Cosmic Cows.  It was all fun and we had a good time kidding each other whether we were winning or losing.

Playing board games is a fun and inexpensive way to enjoy family or friend time.  And it gave us a chance to prove that it isn’t whether you win or lose, it is whether you have fun playing the game.

Do you have a favorite board game that you like to play?  With whom do you enjoy playing it?  Would it be a good game for me to play?