One of the things I love about our family is our shared passion for playing board, dice, and card games. When we have an extra half hour there’s almost always a game going on in one room or another. Personally, I enjoy the wonderful combination of spending time with my family while playing a game that involves mental agility and strategy. Sure, I lose often, but who cares? It’s a blast spending time in a state of play.

We recently picked up a couple of new games at River City Hobbies in La Crosse. HUGE kudos to River City Hobbies as we had no clue what type of games we were interested in. We talked with the person working there, shared the types of games we enjoy playing and what we were hoping for. The next thing we knew he was taking us on a tour of about half a dozen games that were all along the lines of what we wanted. It was great having advice like that, I was amazed at all the options. Quite honestly, I probably wouldn’t have picked the ones that we did without their help. We went with the first two that came to mind for him and have been enjoying them ever since!

For reals, if you haven’t shopped for games at River City Hobbies or Jimmy Jams in Winona you’re missing out. The store is very clean, has a crazy huge inventory of a large variety of games, and an awesome team ready to help you out. Yes, you might be able to save a buck or two at Amazon, but you’ll never get the advice, help and experience like you would have at either of these two excellent local stores. If you’re looking for Christmas gifts for friends and family be sure to check them out!

The games we went with were Kingdomino and That’s Pretty Clever. Both games were easy to learn and are far from being mastered. The re-playability and ability to try out different strategies have been fantastic for both games. As is the magic of a great game there are multiple strategies to lead to victory and many of them are very balanced. They’ve quickly become family favorites along with many of the others we’ve picked up from River City Hobbies and Jimmy Jams (like Sushi Go and Settlers of Catan).

Spending time thinking, spending time playing, and spending time with family… What an awesome use of time!

Thanks!!!