Things To Do For Two

Cost – Free!

The annual Holiday Parade of Lights is the official start of the holiday season in Halifax. Every year thousands of people gather along the city streets to watch the floats go by. It’s a great chance to get outside and spend some time with each other.

SHE SAID:

Every year I plan on attending our local Holiday Parade of Lights and every year I swear I’ll never go again. This year I think I mean it. The parade this year was just plain weird. There were massive five-minute breaks in between floats and at least half the floats had nothing to do with the holidays. At some points it felt more like a Mardi Gras parade than Christmas parade.

That’s not to say every Christmas parade is a waste of time. If you don’t mind bundling up, fighting traffic and heading out into crowds of people, parades are for you. If you haven’t been to a parade since you believed in Santa Claus and want to give it another try, mind the following tips:

• Leave early enough so that you can park and walk before they close the streets off. We arrived 30 minutes before the parade started and that was cutting it close. To eliminate traffic stress, leave an hour and a half before the parade starts.
• Bring a chair and/or blanket. Cold sidewalk + lack of movement = parade anger.
• Bring or buy a hot drink to avoid the aforementioned parade anger.
• Plan to go out for appetizers or dessert afterward to avoid sitting in traffic as everyone tries to head home.

HE SAID:

When I was younger, I may or may not have watched a show called MAD TV (…don’t judge me!). On said show, there was a sketch called “Lowered Expectations” about a dating service for people who are REALLY having trouble finding love. I don’t remember if the sketches were actually funny or not, but the jingle has planted itself firmly inside my brain, only showing itself when I’m in a situation that calls for, you guessed it, lowered expectations.

A few years ago we had the opportunity to go to Disney during the holidays. One of the highlights of that trip was the parade/fireworks show in the Magic Kingdom. It was one of the most well done events I have ever seen. It oozed so much happiness and Christmas cheer that even the Grinch would have loved it.

When I go to a parade now I try to push aside those memories because there’s just no way our city will be able to put on such a spectacle. That said, I had fun at this year’s Holiday Parade of Lights. I dressed in so many layers I could barely move, got freezing cold regardless, grumbled about the huge empty spots in the parade, but I’ll probably bundle up and do the exact same thing next year.

I love seeing the huge crowds lining the streets as they await a glimpse of Santa. I love the floats with live bands playing Christmas songs. I love the kids in the parade who get distracted and fall behind their group. Most of all, I love hanging out with Susan and the friends we go along with. That’s really what it’s all about.

The best part of the night was when the parade was finished and we tried to get out of the parking garage. It was like we were in a demented disaster movie. We were shuffling along up a creepy staircase packed with people trying to escape impending doom, I mean, get to their cars. After realizing that none of the cars had moved an inch in a half hour, we ditched the car and went out for nachos.

Local holiday parades may not have the glitz and glamour of Disney, but they are still worth it. They bring everyone together, even just for a little while, and they kick off the Christmas season. I’ll definitely be going again next year.

Cost – Around $20.00 to buy the game new

Board games are a great way to spend time with someone special. They get you away from the hustle and bustle of life and allow for some great times. We recently tried a new game to us called Sequence. Did it live up to our love of Scrabble, or did it get put back on the shelf in a fit of rage, never to be played again? Well, you’ll have to keep reading to find out.

SHE SAID:

I usually can’t stand learning a new board game, even though I love board games. Normally I don’t have the patience to read wordy instructions on game play and score keeping. I just want to play the game. Once in a while I pull it together if numerous people have recommended one, as was the case with Sequence.

Initially, I had sort of passed off Sequence as a boring board game because those who recommended it were of, let’s say, a different generation (love you, Mom!). Boy was I wrong. It’s now one of my top 5 favorite board games (check back for the other 4 as we continue this series).

I find Sequence fun because it’s one of the few board games Brad and I both love. Brad loves Risk and I would rather make firewood out of its contents. I like Monopoly, but Brad would rather live on bread for a year than be subjected to its “drawn out nonsense” (which makes no sense considering Risk takes HOURS, perhaps even DAYS, to complete). End rant.

I personally like Sequence because it can be a two-player game and it has just the right amount of challenge. The board is basically the faces of two decks of cards. To win, you must make a row, or “sequence,” of 5 tokens. Sounds fairly easy, but not so much when the cards in your hand don’t make a nice sequence on the board. It doesn’t take all night to play, like Risk, but also isn’t over as quickly as Dutch Blitz.

Typically, board games are a great way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon or a rainy day, but they might also work well in the sun. We’ll have to try that out next summer and get back to you. For now, I like how they take you away from your computer and TV screens and force you to converse and spend quality time together. That’s what it’s all about.

HE SAID:

When I was first shown what Sequence looked like I quickly blurted out, “Pffft…Lame!”. But internally I was thinking “Dear God that looks confusing. Quick, make it look like you’re not interested!” You see, me and numbers don’t exactly get along. When I first looked at Sequence I didn’t think about the fact that it was just a bunch of card faces, I just saw a bunch of numbers scattered across the board and panicked.

Luckily this game is great, even for the numerically challenged. The best way I can think to describe it is if Connect Four and Go Fish had a board game baby it would look like Sequence. I’ll leave you with that mental picture for just a second.

There are four things that make Sequence a great game for me:

• The first is that it’s easy to learn. I can’t stand the kind of games where nobody really knows what’s going on, with reading the rules just adding more confusion. The rules aren’t open to interpretation so arguments are kept to a minimum.
• The second great thing about is it works for two people or for larger groups. If you’re playing with six or eight people, you just pair off. The trick is you can’t talk to or see the cards of your partner.
• The third thing is that it’s fairly quick to play. I love dedicating a whole evening to an epic battle for world domination in Risk, but there’s something to be said for being able to sit down for a few minutes to play Sequence and then go do something else. It doesn’t eat up your day like some other games.
• I get a surprising amount of enjoyment out of shouting “SEQUENCIA!!” when I get a sequence.

I think it’s fair to say we both loved this game and can’t wait to play it again. What are some of your favorite board games?

This is the first of hopefully many posts based on a reader’s suggestion. alaModest on Twitter suggested we go to the arcade. We thought that was a great idea so we filled our pockets with tokens, checked our maturity at the door and had some good old fashioned fun.

SHE SAID:

Believe it or not, this was my first arcade experience. In the past, I must admit I scoffed at arcades thinking they were childish and a big waste of money. This may still be true, but I no longer scoff. I now salute the flashing lights and loud noises for providing us with so much fun while we waited for our movie one day.

Since arcades only exist within movie theatres where we live (that we know of), it was a convenient and very entertaining way to pass the time while we waited for our movie to open. I think I might have enjoyed the arcade more than the movie that day. There was something about the carnival type atmosphere that made me feel like a kid again. Had there been cotton candy I probably would have bought some.

I found the shooting games to be the most fun, even though I apparently have really bad aim. The basketball throw was also a fun two player games as we frantically threw half deflated balls into the net. The lack of tokens that are supposed to shoot out at the end of the game tells me we’re also not so good at basketball (surprise, surprise). Regardless, we had a blast.

HE SAID:

I remember as a kid going down to the mall with my friend and going to the arcade. For some reason I remember it being incredibly dark and scary, but I’m pretty sure I had fun at the time. My most significant arcade memory though, is going to the arcade on the ferry when we travelled to Prince Edward Island. I loved when dad would take us there and show off his crazy pinball skills. It was a great way to pass the time on the boat.

Since then, arcades have sort of faded from my thoughts. When I go to the theatre I don’t even think about the fact that there is a room full of fun games off to the side. I guess it’s part of “growing up”.

We threw “growing up” out the window the day we went to the arcade, and it was awesome. I still enjoy the more interactive games like the racing games where you actually sit down inside a fake car, or in this case a fake motorcycle.

It doesn’t take much to burn through five dollars of tokens when there are two of you playing the games. We each played one game separately (I did the motorcycle racing game and she did a deer/moose hunting game), but everything else was very couple friendly. We even tried one of those games where you control the claw that comes down and picks out a stuffed animal. Unfortunately they only give you one try so we failed miserably at it.

I didn’t get to try every game, both because of being too cheap to buy more tokens, and because there were actual kids playing the games. I was hoping to give the Guitar Hero game a try, as well as the pinball machines tucked away in the corner. Maybe next time.

We are definitely going back to the arcade. We’ll probably check out different theatres around town to see what games each one has. It was a lot of fun to do something I haven’t done since I was a kid. This was a great suggestion and I’m glad we did it. If you have any arcade memories from your childhood we’d love to hear about it. Also, if you have any suggestions about things you’d like to see us try, please feel free to email or message us on Twitter and let us know.

(Click here if you can’t see the video of us at the arcade)