Non-Adoption News: NEW GAME!

I realize My Sisters Jar has been overtaken with adoption news.  For those readers who are looking for sage advice on other areas of life…. I’m here for you today.  You’re welcome.

NEW GAME!  The Crosby’s are fierce game addicts.  Seriously, our luggage to Colombia was supremely limited, but we did bring six games!  (Sorry, just a tad bit of adoption trivia.) See!  Addicted!  Anyway, my college roommate came for a visit this summer and taught us to play Carcassonne!  I love it.  Then my brother got it for Christmas… and he lives across the street from us!  Now that I also have a 7-year-old daughter who likes to ride bikes with his 6-year-old son, we set up a table in the driveway and play Carcassonne!  (Sorry, more adoption references. It has truly taken over my life.)

So, I received two copies of Mary Beth Chapman’s book Choosing to See.  What an awesome story of their family, their adoptions, their struggles, etc.  (Sorry, it’s still kind of adoption news related.)  Anyway, I returned one and went in search of Carcassonne!  It took me a while, but I stumbled on THEM (more than one!) at a game store in the mall. 

Now, two Christmases ago my brother received the game Ticket to Ride Europe.  I ran out and bought Ticket to Ride North America for Rick’s birthday (Feb. 3).  But the N.A. game is the dumbed-down version of the European game.  We still like it, but we love my brother’s version.  Remembering this….. I was cautiously sucked into looking at another version of Carcassonne… called The Discovery.  There are no roads, just fields, seas and mountains.  Scoring is different too with fewer playing pieces so you have to stay on top of your game all throughout the game.  I think I like our version better!  Thankfully!

If you need a new Family Game Night adventure…. Carcassonne!  You won’t be sorry.

You’ve Got a Ticket to Ri-ide!

For Christmas, my brother received this new to us game called Ticket to Ride… Europe.  We have since played it 27 times and are loving it.  We loved it so much that we ordered Ticket to Ride North America for my husband for his birthday… which is Feb. 3rd, but we gave it to him within 20 minutes of it arriving at our door.  We wanted to make sure he got it before he leaves tomorrow for three days.  (We’re so thoughtful!)

Anyway, the game is a good mix of Settlers of Catan (building roads vs. building train routes), Risk (conquering the world) and Pit (collecting matching cards without the swapping of cards).  The North American version, I believe, came out first.  It is the dumbed-down version without all the bells and whistles of Europe.  In N.A. if you don’t get to a train route first, you’re outta luck and have to find another round-about way to get there.  In Europe, you simply put down a train station and use the other person’s route…. for a price, of course.

There are a few other versions of Ticket to Ride, as well as some expansion packs.  The game industry has truly figured out how to milk the most money out of us as possible…. expansion packs… GAH!  And at $20-25 each!  AFTER you paid $50 for the game.  They are unfairly using families like ours, who are totally game addicts, by limiting the number of players in the original game….. and then selling expansion packs.  And we fall into the trap EVERY time!

We invited friends over to play Europe and we played two games right in a row!  They called us the next day and asked if we wanted to come over and play again.  They went out and bought it the next day!  See!?!  Good game!  It’s set up on our dining room table if you want to pop by and give it a whirl.  Yes, we’re studying the Middle Ages, so if we play the Europe version, it counts as school!