<p>Great ideas for games. I may pick up more than one and drive my kids crazy over Christmas break. I might even get a new jigsaw puzzle!!!</p>
<p>I went to Northern California over the Nov 17 weekend. I heard Xmas music on the car radio and was OFFENDED…</p>
<p>Is there sommeone who can play some bleusey piano in the back? I have a story.</p>
<p>It was kind of a weird weekend; I actually had dinner with my oooolllllldddd boyfriend from my Doc Marten days in NYC. The BIG one, the age 21-26 one that I thought I would marry. Who broke my heart into smithereens. </p>
<p>It was so interesting: I have barely seen him in 20 years except once about a year later when he showed up unannounced at my door in a different country to ask my forgiveness (and I was so brittle I could have snapped in two), and 2 short, superficial cocktail-chatter interactions with both our spouses in attendance. </p>
<p>This would be interaction #4.</p>
<p>My midlife crisis prompted many reassessments-- and how!-- and one of them was realizing that I really and truly forgave him. I remembered how extremely sweet he was to me for the years of our relationship. I suppose I also had a new appreciation of HOW YOUNG we were-- of course we butterfingered it. So I wrote to him about a year ago and told him that. And got a fast, sweet letter back. I think he’d felt guilty all these years!!</p>
<p>Anyhow he was in SF for biz and invited me to dinner and I said absolutely.</p>
<p>Here’s the interesting part. While I was no longer attracted to him, the core of the relationship-- the intuitive “I get you” part, and the sweetness?-- was 100% there, immediately. Like time had not passed. So weird! But also very comforting to know that the love had been that deep and mutual (which is certainly a question when you get broken up with for reasons that baffle you, ie. in my case: RELIGION!). </p>
<p>He knew the real me, which is still the real me, so he still knew me. Very very deeply. Does that make sense?</p>
<p>I bring this up, Alley peeps, because it was a very beautiful moment… knowing that real, true love, at the core, is real and true-- the nugget of it, anyhow-- and kind of unkillable if you are still willing to feel it. The main part that you loved about the person and that they loved about you, and whatever level of real you got to with them, doesn’t go away. </p>
<p>I think of how I could have saved myself so much suffering if I knew that before now.</p>
<p>My kids were playing Settlers of Catan last time they were together with cousin. We make gluhwein for our Boxing Day party every year. It’s very popular and so easy to do.</p>
<p>SBmom,
I’m so glad you were able to have such a fulfilling visit. Its terrific to know that your relationship was real and deep, yet age and inexperience got in the way of his being able to make a commitment.</p>
<p>You know, my little sister married her high school boyfriend, years later and after many other relationships. They have three kids now.</p>
<p>It was that same feeling for her. That what was true in that time of innocence could still be true in a time of more jaded sensibilities. That who you are, in love, as a teen or a young person, is still you who you are, in love, when you are older. No matter how much the other stuff changes.</p>
<p>You just may not be ready for it in youth. And can you find that same truth later in life? Well, my mom, after a divorce that was not her choice, married my stepfather. A man who well and truly loves her for who she is. Hope is valid.</p>
<p><em>cue the bass fiddle, sawing in behind the piano. Perhaps an oboe?</em></p>
<p>^^ cello, baby: cello!</p>
<p>Thanks for the support bookworm. It was really very healing.</p>
<p>Wonderful story, SBmom! I have read of high school sweethearts (even earlier than your romance) who found one another many years later and married. I love these stories.</p>
<p>I think I narrowly escaped the religion breakup myself. In my early 20’s, I worked with, and was good friends with, a wonderful young man who was married to a really awful young woman. Her main interest was painting her fingernails, while he was brilliant and interested in everything. They had married very young, and were clearly incompatible. During this time, he mentioned to me that he would never marry anyone who was not Jewish. Eventually the couple separated, and a while later this young man professed his undying love for me. I was tempted, but I knew that he was on the rebound and I remembered what he said, and knew that he’d meant it. I am not Jewish, and I told him that things would never work out for us. Some time later he married the perfect woman for him, and they had 5 children, and still live happily ever after. I could have been very happy with him, but I know that he would have broken up with me. So I escaped that particular heartbreak.</p>
<p>SBmom – Nice story! Happy for you that you could now reconnect with this person that was such an important part of your life.</p>
<p>mathmom – this Settlers of Catan game sounds interesting. We’ll have to get ourselves a game and try it this vacation.</p>
<p>Settlers of Catan is not a simplistic game, it is a strategy game. There are multiple offshoots and it can become a real time sink. It’s sort of the prototypical tile placement strategy board game, the granddaddy of a whole slew of others (including the two I recommended earlier, “Puerto Rico” and “El Grande” which are outstanding; in fact, we like them both much better than Settlers). It’s a huge gaming world out there, folks! 
(To learn more, jump into the fray at [BoardGameGeek</a> | Gaming Unplugged Since 2000](<a href=“http://boardgamegeek.com%5DBoardGameGeek”>http://boardgamegeek.com) and read the reviews before you buy.)</p>
<p>(EDIT: The all-time favorites ranking ([GameBrowser</a> - Sorted By Rank | BoardGameGeek](<a href=“http://www.boardgamegeek.com/browser.php?itemtype=game&sortby=rank]GameBrowser”>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/browser.php?itemtype=game&sortby=rank)) at BoardGameGeek shows Puerto Rico at #1, with Settlers down at #27. We have #1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 19, 21, 22, 27, and 31 of the top 50, and really, you won’t go wrong with any of them.)</p>
<p>Myself I was always more into cards. Simple, elegant, chic and portable. Favorite card games: gin, hearts, seven-dash, spit, and casino.</p>
<p>Oh and Mille Bornes, did anyone else play that?</p>
<p>/me raises hand</p>
<p>Milles Bornes junkie here. Coup Fourr</p>
<p>eh bien sur que mootmom!</p>
<p>mootmom, please tell me how to make the accent mark on the computer. I need to know. Is it a back booth discussion or an easy thing?</p>
<p>Cut and paste from wikipedia. :o</p>
<p>so relieved to hear I am not alone in lacking this knowledge!</p>
<p>Milles Bournes - pneu creve!!!</p>
<p>Also lacking the accent…</p>
<p>Am glad to see the Alley has a stack of board games on the shelves against the side wall by the bathrooms…</p>
<p>Special to m&s… I lied when I said we wouldn’t be in Charm City this weekend. We ended up there taking DS back on Sunday night. Stayed in Hampden (as usual) with my bff from high school. AND… strolled down 34th. Wonder if you were there at the same time???</p>
<p>Before heading over (2 blocks from friend’s house), we foreshadowed it to DS as kitsch-y. He had no idea what that word meant. After a stroll down “Miracle of 34th Street”… now he does :D.</p>
<p>We went to Rocket to Venus at move-in time this year. Agree totally.</p>
<p>My favorite card game is still bridge. It would be perfect if it didn’t need exactly four people. But it’s still got advantages - like being able to put dummy to work. (That’s how we get the dishwasher emptied.)</p>
<p>I had a grad school reunion a couple of summers ago. The husband of one of our old mates is a serious game geek and brought lots of interesting games. Unfortunately I can’t remember most of their names. One was called Ricochet Robot - it was interesting Mathson was very good at it. I knew instantly that it was NOT my kind of game. I just can’t picture stuff ahead the way you need to. (Can’t play chess worth beans either.)</p>
<p>Bridge is a fabulous game! My parents made sure we knew how to play when we were kids, my H and I won a few amateur tournaments while I was pregnant, and we took both boys to a beginners class for a few weeks when they were younger. </p>
<p>We need to start up a bridge game in the Alley! Duplicate, anyone? And who’s got the Bridge Mix?</p>
<p>SBMom–cue the bittersweet Jacques Brel song…</p>
<p>I am still friends (tho long distance and infrequent sightings) with two of my old boy friends. It’s nice to know they are people you still like, that they weren’t huge mistakes. And DH and I are both friends with his one serious HS girlfriend.</p>
<p>No bridge for me, but I’ll sample the Bridge Mix. :)</p>
<p>We used to play an Avalon Hill game called Kingmaker, about the War of the Roses. It took as long to learn the rules and set up as to play a game, but it was fun. I don’t think I would have the patience now.</p>
<p>Mootie–there’s a game called “Moot” which is all about words, meanings, derivatives, etc. It’s billed as “the world’s toughest language game” and is available from a company online.</p>