Saturday, December 6, 2008

An Unhealthy Love

We, and by we I mean I, like to play games at our house. When we were dating, Craig indulged my love of games because, well you can probably guess why. He and I would imbibe a few cocktails and inevitably I'd begin to pester him to play a game of Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit or a host of other games. Sometimes we'd stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning playing video games.

It doesn't matter to me if the games are board games, card games, drinking games, dice games or video games. It's not the format of the game that matters. It's all for the love of games.

I'm the one that is asking the rest of the relatives at family gatherings to play a game. Occasionally I can sucker my family into playing one with me. Last Christmas Day we played Trivial Pursuit DVD Pop Culture for something like three hours. My mom, my brother and my sister-in-law kept asking me when we could stop playing. They'd drop hints of their impending demise from malnutrition and offer me bribes of chocolate cake to try to distract me. I simply offered to pause the game while they each went to use the bathroom. I'm not totally heartless. Besides, I was pregnant at the time and enjoyed my chocolate cake while playing the game. My dad and my husband were the only smart ones in the bunch, saying they would watch the kids so the rest of us could play. I'm willing to bet there will be a lot more people available to watch the children this year.

My kids seem to have inherited the game bug from me though. A few weeks ago we instituted Family Game Night. It is held every Friday unless we have other exciting plans on a Friday night (which is almost never and if you think that sounds like a complaint you are so very wrong). The kids pick the game or games. So far we've played Wheels on the Bus, Yahtzee Junior, Candyland, Chutes and Ladders and a PC version of LIFE. The kids' favorite by far is LIFE and we play it most often of all of our games.

Last night we even attended a family game night at my oldest child's school. Of course she abandoned us to go play games with her friends, then our son tried to ditch us to join her so it might have been just Craig and I (with Baby D in the sling) sitting around the elementary school cafeteria playing a heated game of Candyland. But K was denied entry into the girls' game so he and his dad tried out the stacking cups instead. Sometimes it's hard being the little brother.

So tonight we will once again play games. I will attempt to let one of my children win even though I am not always successful. Sometimes they trounce me even without my cheating in their favor. Those are the best games.

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Anonymous said...

OOo I am such a gamer ... love it and miss it! hehe Love playing with the kids too!

Rima said...

I can't WAIT for my kids to be old enough for game night! I will play pretty much anything except Risk. It takes too long to finish and my family is waaaaay too competetive for it.

Sandy said...

What's unhealthy about playing games with your family??? Of course, 3 hours may be a tinge on the insane side, but I can think of worse things you could do with your time.

As I write this, Kurt is playing Life with the kids. They love it.

Wendy said...

Have you ever played Mancala? Thomas was uber-excited to find it at the store because they play it in the Philippines a lot. It's a game with marbles in little cups on a board. Kind of hard to explain, but easy and fun to play. You should try it!

Kate said...

I can say without regret that I am still seriously addicted to Ms. Pacman. We have one of those plug-n-play versions that I picked up at Target and it was like the best indulgence ever.

Jen S. said...

I like games, but Hubby isn't into them very much.

louann said...

I am so excited to starts having our own game night. I bought an UNO and can't wait to teach my kids. Its just that my 2 year old still can't get the hang of it and makes a big deal when he can't join...so... hopefully in a year or 2!

Angi said...

I confess, I HATE games right now. Mostly because the kids are such different ages/skill levels and every game we've tried lately has ended in an argument (or two, or three).

Hubby & I used to stay up late playing games together (Boggle & Rack-O were 2 faves) but now we are both too tired :)

Maybe one day we will brave family game night again, I know it is SO good for the kids (and the grown ups too!) to play together.

Angi said...

Oh yeah - try Cranium's Family Fun Game, our kids love it...when they are not fighting over whose turn it is, or who looked at them wrong, or _______.

*sigh*

Anonymous said...

I'm that person at the family gatherings, too! It's so much more fun than watching football.

 
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