hey @payn4ward, had a similar scare with my husband last February. Be reassured, our heart professionals do heart well. Really well. Take long walks with your husband in pretty places. Good for health and happiness.
Whaaat @Mom2aphysicsgeek! That is insane.
@Ynotgo, we love Illuminati also - I guess it has aged well. Now I want to play!
@payn4ward, glad to hear your H is on the road to recovery. I bet your kids will be quick to pick up the snow shovel now (unless you actually migrate south)!
@payn4ward I am glad your DH is recovering well!
@Mom2aphysicsgeek - Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the waterâŠ
The good news it that the college app piece has wound downâŠ
@payn4ward I am glad to hear your H is doing well and I wish him a speedy recovery!
@Ynotgo :-bd Loved Illuminati in College! :-bd
I got the game again, a few months ago, and mean to teach both DD14 and DS17.
OK, now Iâm making sure we bring a new game or two into the mix, and I do not know Illuminati. Have looked it up but would appreciate knowing two quick things: Do you need to have read the books to understand? And can you play with just 3 players (because our 4th returns to college soon)? TIA.
Also welcome any other game suggestions!
@Mom2aphysicsgeek oh my gosh, that sounds overwhelming! poor dd!
We are huge, huge gamers. We got several new games for Christmas (had to shift our gaming intensity b/c our household will be younger when dd leaves and the littler ones start playing). Anyway, 2 that we really like that are quick (as in not super long like Catan) are Alhambra and Kingdom Builder. Another game that is fun with 3 players is Ticket to Ride (we own just about all of them).
Donât forget to check those spam folders this weekend.
@DMV301 Dutch Blitz. Fast moving card game can be played with 3 as I recall. Super fun.
D17 has the final shot in her meningitis series tomorrow morning. Check it off the list.
D20 was written up in the local paper this week for helping the varsity gymnastics team to their highest point total in 5 years at a recent meet. They have a big home meet in the morning. What does she do? Twists her ankle during warmups today. She may only be able to compete bars tomorrow⊠>:P
Quelf had the cousins ranging from age 13 to 20 in hysterics at Christmas. Eight of them appeared to be playing the same game. I donât know if there were teams involved or if the game allows eight players. At times they were all in motion, so perhaps not a typical board game.
@carachel2 â Thank you. My husband has worked for a couple of different colleges, in financial aid and IT. I tell you this because he had said âOkay, apply to Cornellâ and D (and I) went with it on faith that his experience meant that there was a possibility that should she be accepted, the FA package could work. Our family contribution through FAFSA is about 38,000 and the Cornell grants were just under 16,000/year. We looked at it a number of different ways, but without raiding our retirement funds and/or borrowing more than we shouldâŠit would not work. Sad to say. Fortunately, she is fine with not attending Cornell, and was offered better FA at other schools. D will do well wherever she ends up.
@Motiv8tedmom23 --Thanks and good luck to your S17!
Loving all these suggestions. And that Ticket to Ride, Europe version, seems perfect to play as our D prepares to study abroad! (Testing whether Amazonâs âsame day deliveryâ really works.)
@DMV301 --we love the European TTR game! Enjoy!
@DMV301 You donât need to read the books at all. Itâs recommended for 4-6 players, but the instructions say it is possible with 2-8.
Ticket to Ride is fun.
Mexican Train may be suitable for study abroad preparation as well. 
Games! Our youngest is nine, so we generally have to go for simpler games, and thereâs six of us, which further limits our options if weâre all to play at once.
So: Weâre big We Didnât Playtest This At All fans.
In a similar vein, Fluxx, though that oneâs a bit more structured. We were given Exploding Kittens (the not NSFW version!) for Xmas, and have only played it twice, but it seems likely to move into heavy rotation.
Darker: D19 discovered Gloom about a year and a half ago, asked for it for her birthday and then acquired enough expansion sets that all six of us plus one or two of her friends can play an astonishingly complicated version (each expansion set adds capacity for one player plus added complexity), and has gotten us all into it.
Moving away from card-based games, weâve been playing a lot of Spy Alley (board game) and Faeryâs Tale (little-kid-friendly pencil and paper role-playing game). The 11-year-oldâs been trying to get us to try the kid-friendly-but-not-as-innocent Mouse Guard RPG, but sheâs the only one whoâs read the rules yet.
Our favorite more complicated board game is probably Rail Baron (out of print, sadly) with a couple house rules (basically making it much harder for the person who buys the Pennsylvania Railroad to win in the endgame by default). Ticket to Ride Europe is a related game that we also like, but not quite as much.
gosh, I thought we were big into games
Since you will be playing with younger ones soon, try the card game Set or maybe Pit. Itâs simple, fast, and your kids will love to ring the bell!