And now the schools break up today, and it seems that I have been so excited by the creation of my humongous (and still unfinished) Liberty brick quilt that I completely forgot to organise Christmas. I wanted to snuggle under it and watch Christmas films! Even though there was no food in the house to eat! (There's booze. There's always booze. By the way, Aldi's Premium knock-off Baileys? I'd recommend it. Call me classy.)
And where is my last-minute through-the-post vital-to-everything parcel? Where is it? Eh?
Maybe you are super-organised and everything is ready. Or maybe you are like me, and are heading off to the shops in a rush. If the latter, I should really tell you about two games that Mattel sent me to review, since they are super-fantastic and we have been playing them, and they are knocking the socks off some of the things that the Lattes have actually asked for. (Moshi Monsters. One Direction. Give me strength.)
Our favourite of the two is Pictionary, which we love. The Littlest Latte has some, um, issues around winning, which are diffused in Pictionary because it is so damn funny. We can't draw. That makes it even funnier. A game where you weep with laughter over each other's drawings, as opposed to a game where you race round a board trying to beat one another, is a proper winner. (Also, there are ways to make the game SHORTER. Which, as I'm sure you'll agree, is a wonderful feature.) I hadn't played Pictionary for 20 years. Why not? Why? It's really good.
They also sent Uno Roboto, which is a fancy new robotic way to play a quite traditional family card game, but all the better for it. Once the robot is there, the game takes on a new unpredictability and, again, it's SHORT. "Can we play a game?" usually involves blocking off ages, plodding round Monopoly boards and to be honest, we're a family without a great deal of staying power. We're good with fast and furious (especially the furious) and as a result this has been very popular. The cards have the additional 'benefit' of being playable without the robot, and as such can be taken around the house to play games with poor fathers who are ill in bed with bad colds and would far rather be watching US cop shows on the laptop.
So. Top tips for last-minute presents and cheap sticky booze - what more can I give you? Good wishes for these vital final days? A hope that you're not all as last-minute as me? A wave and a cheery smile?
Fa la la la la. Let's get on with it.
Pictionary sounds like a great idea, maybe I'll switch that out for the Monopoly I'm supposed to pick up, oh sometime soon, for Christmas.
ReplyDeleteYour quilt, by the way, would inspire me to add just one more square too. It's gorgeous.
I think the cheapo Baileys while wrapped in that beautiful quilt sounds just the ticket. Santa takes care of the rest anyway.
ReplyDeleteI am not bragging, honestly, but we've been ready for a couple of weeks.
ReplyDeleteNow, we sit, half of us hacking sick and no Christmas.
We're impatient to get through it.
Pictionary! Genius! Expensive! Damn.
We could use that quilt.
Christmas? What Christmas? Swamped with work + overtired children + rumbling coughs all over the house doesn't make for a well-prepared Christmas.. Thank goodness for husbands who like nothing more than shopping and buying people presents (??? HOW does he DO that????). Hate Monopoly. Love Scrabble (if only for the fact that I can disguise tired stupor as intense thinking). Looove pictionary. Looooooove charades. And love your quilt!! It really is beautiful..
ReplyDeleteI deprived myself of coffee recently, just because Starbucks was the only option. But avoiding Google proved all together too difficult. Almost set for Christmas now, barring the supermarket scrumdown.... Have a Merry one!
ReplyDeleteOur version of Pictionary is the cheapo home made version where you do Consequences but with drawing - you each get a piece of paper, all write something on it that can be drawn (this is where you can get evil), fold over and pass to next person. You then unfold the piece of paper you have received and look at the word, re-fold and then draw what you read. Fold paper, pass on, unfold and then write down what you think the drawing is. Repeat until you run out of paper. The metamorphoses that take place over several rounds if, like us, you can't draw for toffee, can be hilarious. Also, you can give people easy things to draw such as "Nigel Kennedy playing with the London Philarmonic Orchestra" (I got that once. I almost cried.)
ReplyDeleteI did a taste test of Baileys vs Ballycastle one year and the Ballycastle won. Go ALDI! (and at less than half the price!)
ReplyDeletewhat is the lidl version like? that's what I need to know............
ReplyDelete