Of course we played games. That’s our family thing. Zack has been playing Magic with friends for a couple years, and really enjoys it, so he brought his decks and convinced me and Alex to play. However, he’s an expert whereas I’ve only played maybe twice in my life a decade ago, so he trounced the two of us while we sat there kind of dumbfounded.
We played Wingspan, but it’s a five-player game and there were six of us, so I made a custom player mat. It actually worked quite well!
Zack proceeded to win Wingspan with the highest score I’ve ever seen. He had an amazing combination of cards. Even Aron, the biggest Wingspan player I know, was astonished when I told him about it.
Alex and I spent a couple hours playing Terraforming Mars. In the past he’s always beaten me, but I had the upper hand this time. It’s a great (but long) game.
Kyra pulled out the Quest VR headset, and we took turns impressing each other with our Beat Saber skills. Zack has a technique different than the rest of us: he just sort of waves his hands in a smooth, fluid motion. The rest of us fling our arms everywhere. I mean, when you have two lightsabers in hand, you should fling your arms, right?
There was a lot of pool (and Skunk), as well as ping-pong.
Spikeball was a hit; Julian particularly liked it. After he left, he went back to Washington and promptly bought his own spikeball set.
Alex spent some downtime working on his latest Dungeons and Dragons campaign. He has a weekly game (or maybe two?) with friends all over the country, so he often has to put together new maps and adventures.
There were also some exercise workouts, although when I watched Kyra and Zack it wasn’t entirely clear how much of a “workout” they were actually getting by pumping these little five-pound weights.
There were plenty of other games: Sparts, Deuces Wild, Skull King, Splendor, Cover Your Assets, Skull, and on and on. Although I have ample opportunity to play games with local friends throughout the year, there’s something special about doing it with my kids. I particularly enjoy those “proud dad moments” when one of them uses a clever strategy to absolutely demolish me. It reminds me that I’ve taught them well.