Penny Hockey Construction - The Prototype

For Christmas this year, we've decided to change gears and only give gifts to our family that we've "made" or crafted in some way.   I have 3 nephews that I've decided to make a board game for that was one of my favorites when I was growing up:  penny hockey.  I'm thinking of updating it a bit to make it more competitive with the Wii (who are we kidding!  These things will collect dust!).  I had a bit of help from Nat's dad and future-brother-in-law-law (my sister in law's future husband) in coming up with the prototype.  I think that some of their moms (my sisters!) read this here blog, so I will only show a little sneak peak of the board pre-sanding/staining/finishing.  

I stained in this weekend and have put a coat of polyurethane on it to make it slick.  It isn't as slick of a surface as I remember, but the angles are just about right.   I'm going to have it around the house for a few months to figure out how we can make it better.  First up:  make it smaller so it fits in a backpack.  That was Nat's idea and I think it is a good one.  We'll aslo try to make it relevant to young folks who are into things like this and this.  

I'll update you all as we get closer with the final builds.  I hope this game finds a way into their lives like it did for me when I was in 5th grade.  I played it everyday at school and loved every minute of it.