Winter evenings sure are long, aren’t they? Most winter nights see many people staring at the television or sitting at their respective laptops, languidly streaming old TV shows and playing online games. After a while, it can get a bit tedious. And at our home, we’re no exception – except that we don’t really watch television. We do have a TV, but only to play DVDs and watch Netflix. We don’t subscribe to a cable network because we’re not interested in most ratings-driven popular programming.
Anyway, if you combine all those hours of TV viewing with hours of screen time, it’s a recipe for eye strain and brain fade. Never mind the added hours we spend on a daily basis sitting at our desks and working online.
Our Solution
We got out our playing cards and old classic board games. Cribbage, Monopoly, Scrabble, Backgammon, and Trivial Pursuit. All games we used to love to play but had relegated to the cupboard when online options seemed to take over our entertainment time – and who can blame us? Online options had the added attraction of being convenient to access and user-friendly, not to mention the great cognitive benefits associated with game playing.
But then, those long winter nights. The net result is that we’ve started to play board games again. But sadly, just the two of us for now. It doesn’t feel quite right, but at least we have stepped away from the electronics for a change. It’s allowed us to reconnect with each other in a funny, competitive way again too.
The pandemic sure hasn’t helped any of us. Getting through dark nights and wintery weekends without live entertainment has been a challenge for us both. Whereas in the past, a Friday or Saturday night saw us and a bunch of friends sitting around the kitchen table playing a game together. We’d be laughing our heads off and enjoying some drinks, nibbling on bowls of chips and dip, pretzels and other nifty snacks while battling it out over a friendly game of whatever!
The conversations, the banter and jibes as well as the intense competition was hilarious. Conversations were salty. And often, whoever was hosting the evening, handed out silly prizes to the winners and always had a corny booby prize for the worst loser! Everyone headed home afterwards with a feeling of, yes, that was terrific, let’s do it again soon.
That Was Then, This Is Now
We miss those evenings spent entertaining with our friends, but we both try to at least play a couple of games by ourselves on a regular basis. Since it’s just the two of us, we settle down at our coffee table (in lieu of the kitchen table), snacks and cocktails in hand, in front of our fireplace where it’s nice and warm and cozy – and then we try to beat each other at whatever game we’ve decided to play.
Until gathering with our friends is a frequent occurrence again, we have to make do without their company – but at least we have each other. I must add that it’s amazing how quickly a dark and dreary winter night slips by though, when you’re having fun!
We at Everything Retirement would love to know which games you’re playing to get through the long winter evenings, so drop us a comment on our Facebook page when you have a moment.