Sleeping Queens and Carcassonne

I've mentioned before that I'm not really a games person. So I'm more than happy that the twice weekly Tai Kwon Do classes I take my ten year old to coincide with the times my husband plays Carcassonne with our other boys. For this reason and this reason alone, I don't explode when I return to see that someone has opened the dishwasher(which is at the end  of its cycle), taken out a clean glass and closed the door again. Is there anything more irritating? Anyway, while they are not emptying the dishwasher, they are also not playing the Xbox or wrestling on the kitchen floor, so that's nice. When I get home they're usually coming to the end of the game and talking about monks, thieves, farmers and the cloisters, cities and farms where they live. They really like it, and they're forty six, twelve, eight and three. So, even though I don't play it, I'm pretty sure I can safely recommend Carcassonne. (Also, it was the German Game of the Year in 2001.)

But that's not what I meant to write about. Sleeping Queens is the one that surprised me. I got it for my eldest for Christmas and noticed yesterday that it still had its cellophane wrapper on. So not exactly a big hit on Christmas morning. In return for an few squares of chocolate, I got one of the older kids to play it with me and found myself loving it. A card game, it is definitely beautifully looking(those are the cards at the top of this post), but that's not the important part. The important part is that I wasn't bored or reading the newspaper between turns or generally just waiting until it was over. Its just so absorbing and enjoyable and there's a bit of thinking involved and its just great! He asked to play again (for no chocolate!) and the others started hovering to get involved. (I didn't let them - the old reverse psychology trick. They can play later today.)

So, Sleeping Queens. Its about €10.00 on Amazon. Get it.

(Important update - I forgot to say that I first saw Sleeping Queens on the fab blog Ben and Birdy!)