Playing games

Robbie and I have been enjoying a new game this winter: Carcassonne.  It is, according to the box, "a simple, clever tile laying game, that brings new challenges with every turn."

It's made by a German company (hence the slightly odd wording), and won Spiel des Jahres 2001. A clerk in our new indie bookstore in town, New Bo Books, told me about it and I was intrigued. It ended up under our Christmas tree this year.

Basically, players take turn drawing tiles, and put together a medieval landscape with them, placing "men" on the tiles in order to get points.  

OK, confession:  I bought it as a ruse. It's to get Robbie to sit and do something with me. He'll even stop fiddling with digital art tutorials on his new laptop in order to play a game of Carcassonne with me, which pleases me.

In the past, I've bought other games for the very purpose of tricking him into spending time with me.  I love to lose to him in Bananagrams and Boggle; anything to get him to hang out with me on a winter's evening.

The kitty usually joins us in her usual way:  first she walks across the playing field, then she sits at the edge of the rug with her back to us.

Act interested, but not too interested.  And stay in the vicinity of the people you love.  As the mom of teenage boys, I can relate to her approach.