It was supposed to be a group of six for pray and play, but just like the last three times we’ve planned for a group of 6, more ended up deciding to join and we had eight at the table! That’s ok. Plans are made to be ammended, right? 😜With a couple of celiacs coming, I made plans for a large, gluten free desert. It ended up being too much, but who can argue with leftover coffee cake? Not I !

At a Glance…

The Food

I made Minimalist Baker’s apple coffee cake; which I’ve made before and knew it was pretty fool proof. With 8 coming, I decided to double it and luckily had just enough apples. I used my trusty Cloud 9 gf flour blend and all the other baking essentials. Don’t do what I did and forget you were doubling the recipe until halfway through. Also don’t do what I did and use too small a bowl for said doubled recipe. But itt was fineeee…. (insert gif of dog in house on fire). My baking is usually done in panic mode as I transition between the brief amount of time I have from finishing my work day to hosting. The coffee cake turned out great! I love how easy it is to make, and to make gluten free. The extra crumb topping that fell off was great in our homemade blizzards the next day. 😋 And, turns out, several people weren’t that hungry, so plenty of leftovers for Jon and I! I’d always prefer that to risking running out.

The Play

We started with a few rounds of Concept. This is such a great party game for those who can’t draw, haha. I first came across this game on an episode of Tabletop (with Wil Wheaton)- such a great show. Definitely recommend. There’s a board of icons and a bunch of clue cards. On your turn, you (and a partner, the way we play), put out little cubes on the board trying to get everyone else to guess your word(s), without talking. We like to play partnering up, so it’s less stressful on one person, where you give clues with the person sitting next to you, then the person sitting next to you gives clues with the person sitting next to them, and so on. We don’t ever play for points (though you could), it’s more just an activity til we’re ready to be done. The only timer on your turn is your own shame, haha. Consequently, we had a pretty epic turn where my partner and I were trying to get everyone to guess ‘Strike while the iron is hot’. It was disasterous, until we finally got them to get one of the words! We’ve also made a bunch of Bible clue cards we used to use at a convention we ran, which are now handy when playing with church groups (hit me up if you want the files!). There’s also a kids version!This is a great chill one to start or end the night with.

Sushi Go Party- Four of the people were only going to stay another 30 minutes after that, so we just whipped out a quick game of Sushi Go Party. This is a drafting game where you’re picking cute little sushi cards to play in front of you that all score points in various ways. It’s played over 3 rounds, and has tons of replayability with different menu options you can swap in and out. We used to have the original one, but the Party version just has so much more room for variety and players. It’s adorable to look at, and would of course pair well with some tasty tempura or other sushi of choice.

Race for the Galaxy- After a few people left, we were down to four of us and the sky was the limit when it came to picking another game! One of our friends had just picked up Roll for the Galaxy and hadn’t learned it yet, so we decided to teach him Race. It’s a crazy, complicated card game full of lots of iconography…infamous for being a tricky teach and learn. But Jon’s a pro and we were soon off and running. It’s definitely not one I’m good at, but I’ve gotten better over the years and stick to the cards I understand 🤣. It’s a well designed, highly regarded game, so if you get the chance and have a good teacher, give it a try!

Piepmatz! What a delightful little card game about beautiful birds, sneaky squirrels, and creepy crows. Piepmatz is one of my favs, on our 10×10, and designed by two of my favs (Pinchback and Riddle!), so I was so happy to teach it to two more people that night. In the game, you are trying to be the biggest, baddest bird at the bird feeder 😂. You do this by playing cards from your hand to the birds at the feeder, trying to beat their value and getting seed cards (points) based on how much you beat them by. You get points and win by 1) getting pairs of the same bird number and color in male and female 2) getting the seed cards 3) getting the majority of a color. It’s a little hard to wrap your head around at first with all the (simple) math and manipulation, but I love the puzzle of it!

Want to buy these games? Check out your friendly local game store (FLGS), Amazon [here], or get a first-order discount at Board Game bliss [here].

-Buy Concept at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com

-Buy Sushi Go Party at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com

-Buy Race for the Galaxy at Amazon.com