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If you would have told us a year ago that we would be watching each other play board games instead of rooting on our favorite NBA team during March Madness, we would have laughed and called you crazy. If you would have told us that spring soccer, baseball, lacrosse, track, softball, and all other off-season training of any kind would be cancelled this spring, we wouldn't have believed it. Fast forward to Spring 2020 and the terms quarantine, COVID-19 and coronavirus are suddenly household names and BOOM, board games have become our reality.
In an effort to bond with our households and attempt to satisfy our cravings for a good rivalry, we have rediscovered the board game athlete in ourselves. Competing against our families individually or as teams, we are more often found gathered around the kitchen table instead of the television these days. And, although we miss the crowds, the cheering, the boo'ing and the concession stands, something positive has emerged in the form of good old-fashioned family time. We aren't just watching someone else play, we are playing ourselves.
We thought it would be fun to talk about what we are playing with our families, so we asked our office staff to share what's hot in their homes right now.
Attorney Bill Root, has been playing the classic game of Scrabble quite a bit and has probably been trying to sneak in a few words like PIF and RRPG. In our office, PIF is short for Personal Information Form and RRPG, of course, is the shortened version of our firm name Resch, Root, Philipps & Graham. Are acronyms even allowed in Scrabble? I guess when you are dealing with a global pandemic, anything goes!
Nicole Lietz is one of our legal assistants. She said, "We love playing Clue, Blokus, Chess, Ticket to Ride and Uno Attack". She also said her oldest child, Hannah, taught them a new card game called BS (you can guess what that acronym stands for!) in which you may need to bluff/lie.
Her son Owen, who is on the spectrum and very much a rule follower, had a very tough (in a humorous way) time learning this one, but once he got the hang of it, he was all in and now they all get a good laugh out of it!
Audra Cremeans from our marketing team has enjoyed revisiting the Game of Life with her teenagers, a game they once played all the time but had been covered in dust when the busyness of sports and after school activities took over her family's evenings and weekends.
Uno Attack and, what Audra considers a go-to game, Rummikub (pictured at top) have also reappeared and are getting a lot of use. Audra says, "The daily dose of smiles and laughter that our family of four have found again are going to be one of the good memories to come out of this stay at home order. I think we had forgotten how much joy can come from a simple board game that we all participate in together."
Jen Crabtree, also from our marketing team, found a brand new game that her family has really enjoyed. Late night talk show host, Jimmy Fallon's Box of Lies. Jen's review you ask? "Definitely some good laughs! Although if you lose to your kid, you might be concerned about them being a good liar!"
Lora Leuzinger is one of our office assistants. She has been doing a lot of puzzles, as you can see from this photo. Not pictured is another table top full of puzzles! She has definitely been really busy with these great mind exercises.
She also enjoys playing Minecraft with her kids. She says "the 3 of us keep expanding the city we're creating"! As a family they play a card game called 3-13. This one was new to most of us, so thought we'd share the rules "How to play
3-13" link here! https://www.pagat.com/rummy/3-13.html
Meredith Monroe, from our billing department, says, "With 2 college kids at home, we have been playing Weird Things Humans Search For and What Do You Meme?
So, we want to know, what have YOU been playing? We hope that you are taking advantage of the time at home and rediscovering how much fun it can be to sit around a table and connect over a board game. We can't help but think about the toys from Pixar's Toy Story. We'd bet these games were excited to be played with again.