Our party hosting itch continues to get scratched. After a fall packed with events, we promised ourselves some time to relax. Instead, we found ourselves vacuuming and cleaning up in preparation for a New Year’s Day congregation: the Incredible Day of Games.

It was only too obvious—what else to do on a cool, relaxing January 1st other than come together to play board games and drink cocoa? The idea was to assemble a combination of of my three favorite things: game-playing, food-making, and friends-hanging-out-with. Much to my elation, most invitees were equally enticed by the proposition, making the IDOG a raging success.

There’s little that quickens my heartrate faster than the prospect of game-based competition. This much is obvious to anyone who knows me. The idea of spending 10 straight hours consumed in game-play was practically orgasmic. Sorry, geekgasmic. My fear was that none of my friends would feel the same. Most of my friends are geeks of a similar order, though often more specialized in their obsessions. Would the prospect of an all-day game-a-thon be as up their alley as mine?

Turns out it was. I think the key is the timing and the rarity of the event. This isn’t something we could do every month, or even every other month. I’m thinking at most twice a year. Which is fine by me. We can fill in the other weeks with smaller, shorter gatherings.

For those interested, the following is a list of the games that were played, some at the same time as others, and the list of winners for each game:

• Best Seller (No winners. Or rather, no losers)
• Boggle (me)
• Carcassone (Ross, Bob/Luke, Bob)
• HeroClix (Bob, Jeremy)
• Settlers of Catan (Ross)
• Ticket to Ride (Stacey, Lucas, Luke)

More photos of the evening—including our pizza-making adventures—can be found on Luke’s flicker photostream.