We got to visit relatives and my uncle (super board game aficionado) was there. We played 7 Wonders, a big ole empire-planning strategy game. Pretty good, but with a high learning curve. We also played Flash Point: Fire Rescue, a cooperative firefighting game similar to Pandemic. Surprisingly, we actually won. I hear that’s rare. One pretty casual game that I found we liked a lot was Hamsterrolle. It’s a bit like Jenga, played in a circular will with inward facing slats around the edge. You’re trying to get rid of all your little wooden blocks by placing them on a wheel, making it slowly turn and eventually drop pieces out. If you cause pieces to fall out, you have to pick them up. Lots of tension and excitement in that game. Oh, another casual game we played was Luck of the Draw. Draw a random subject mentioned on a card and vote on some random criteria such as “most surprising” or “most angular”. Pretty fun.