This week-end I had the privilege of celebrating that I turned older yet again at some point in July with my wonderful friends. Due to some scheduling issues we had a pre party on Friday night where I got to play my first in-person Daybreak with my friend with whom I’ve accumulated 117 BGA plays of this.
We played a slightly chaotic 4 player version that included my partner and another friend. Because 2 of us knew what they were doing, and two of us didn’t, there was a bit of coaching involved and we ran into the weirdest problem: the projects deck ran empty. Most of the cards were in play by round 5 when we finally achieved drawdown and since we played without challenge modes that meant we won.
Then for old-time’s sake I asked if we could play a few rounds of Dixit before midnight. This is the same group I originally played this game with the very first time. It was one very memorable New Year’s eve more than 15 years ago. And it still had the same magic as back then. Sadly, it was late and one of us had a long drive ahead of them the next day early in the morning. I am amazed though that I got to play with the same people again and that even just two rounds were able to conjure up magic.
This is a classic prompt for us. This time being more relevant then ever because all 3 of the others have just been let go by their respective firms (I think all 3 are relieved and happy they are finally rid of those particular jobs, all work(ed) in tech and expect to line up new jobs before their garden leave runs out. We had a very nice celebratory drink together)
The next day we had the big yearly celebration with most of my favorite people in the world. My partner made his famous pulled pork, some teriyaki wings (with my recently acquired sauce recipe) and I made the veg burgers I made last year and when I told the vegetarians their eyes lit up. Everyone brought food. The kids are old enough to help out around the party… well some of them, the ones I now list under “adult” in my party planning. We’re around 25 adults this time and 9 (high-entropy) kids. And before they left the last guests helped us clean up the kitchen.
We got super-lucky with the weather. It rained only the smallest bit and even though it was cold we could sit outside for most of the day.
A lot of food was eaten. A lot. We have some hungry friends . Still there are pulled pork leftovers that will enrich our upcoming RPG session on Monday.
A few rounds of That’s Not A Hat and some unidentified “Do you have a regular card deck?” games were played by the kids later in the evening.
PS: my 90s playlist made a well-received appearance.