Candyland

This week (and probably next) definitely goes down as a case of work interfering with real life. I haven't had much time for anything else and depending on how things go today... I could either be breathing a little easier next week, or staying up half the night worrying from now til next Friday, when I am due to give a big presentation.

Time will tell.

Before I got so sucked into the work vortex that I have little time left for my family, who really deserve my time the most, I spent roughly three weeks playing approximately 504,392 rounds of Candyland with the kids. Mallory received this gift for Christmas and I am glad that she did - it is the perfect first board game for little kids. It's enough to make any parent go batshit crazy after being asked to play round after round after round of it, mind you, but at least it's keeping the little ones entertained.

In all honesty, I really do like this game. It's easy enough for the kids to have gotten the hang of it after a single game. You draw cards to move around the board. There are a few squares you can land on that make you miss a turn or else take a shortcut to move ahead. And then there are the candy cards, which are wildcards really, and they can move you anywhere on the board. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on which candy card you draw and how early or late in the game it is.

There is a stipulation in the rules of the game that you don't have to enforce backward-moving candy cards on young game players, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Sometimes your luck is good and sometimes it stinks. Welcome to real life, kids. We have had a few tears when someone is on the brink of winning and then draws the candy cane card, which sends you back to the very first leg of the board, but these days the kids are generally pretty good sports about moving backwards as well as forwards. I'm sure this is due in large part to a game in which Liam was poised to win when he drew the candy cane card, and on his very next turn drew the ice cream cone card, which is the candy card closest to the finish line. In other words, he wound up right back where he started and still managed to win the game. Now they can see that things can change on a dime and it ain't over til it's over.

If nothing else, this game will open up a whole big world of cliches for them. And that's a life lesson right there.