I could say that I "almost" rejoice when the National Electric Power System is disconnected in our country and leaves us in blackout for 2 or 3 days. That has happened frequently in the last 6 months, we have already lived the third (or fourth 🤔) season of that series 🥴.
It's not macabre joke when I say I'm glad, I really am...in a way 😉. During that time we went into "family leisure" phase. Zero screens, little work, little housework and the most suitable thing to cope with the situation and that also works as occupational therapy...BOARD GAMES!!!
Here I present the collection that I treasure, some for a long time, others came with the growth of my daughter.
The game that catches us very often, and which I told you about in a post some time ago, is Continental. This is the king of home entertainment and is never missing. To play it you need 2 packs of cards. We bought these in 1998 and they have outlived many Continentals and other card games that we also like. They are worn and yellowed from so much use, but there they remain....resisting 😜.
I dare say that in almost every Cuban house there is a domino game. This is a classic in family gatherings and of course we have one since 2003. In my grandparents' house every night they played dominoes, I learned since I was a little girl and I love it as well as my husband, my daughter not so much.
The Cubilete, as we "misnamed" in Cuba the Dice Poker Game, is another classic without a doubt. I don't remember exactly when my brother gave it to us, but it was before 2007, of that I am sure. This is another must-have in our dark days ðŸ¤.
The exact age of my daughter when we bought these games I don't remember, but one by one they came. Snakes and Ladders, a simple board game, was one of the first and she loved it.
When she learned numbers we bought Bingo, I would call out the numbers for her and her friends when they came over. It was super fun because at first they didn't quite understand the rules and would yell bingo every time they got a number I called out.
Pictionary came when she had been in English school for 2 years. It served as entertainment and learning...even for us 😆. I still have pictures she would draw during her turns for us to guess.
Chess also came quite early, I would be about 6 or 7 years old. There my participation was null and void and still is ðŸ¤. He still plays it with his dad and from time to time with a cousin or friend.
Then came the Dama games (Chinese and Spanish). They are small boxes with a magnetic board, special for long car trips. On many occasions they accompanied us on our tours.
Scrabble is a game that has been a challenge for the three of us since we bought it. It takes a large lexicon, a lot of memory and agility to associate letters and form words with good punctuation. We play this one quite often, even without being turned off 😊.
We bought Monopoly for her at an International Book Fair in Havana, by then my daughter would have been about 10 years old. This game still occupies our time whenever we can. We enjoy playing it, even though the game can be quite long.
The last one we acquired was a gift from the owner of the place where I had my business. It belonged to her grandson who emigrated and the game was left at home. She gave it to Olivia and we gratefully accepted it knowing the sentimental value it had for them. It is a Trivial Persuit family edition, we have learned a lot with it. It has questions for children and adults, some are easy, but others are very complex and cover a wide range of topics.
And so much for my collection of fun. Do you play any board games as a family? Do you like them? Do you keep any of them from your childhood or your children's?
Text and images by me. I used DeepL for the translation.
