What I'm thankful for tonight is games. God, how I love games. Growing up, my family played games all the time. Card games were number one: blackjack, poker, casino, a variant of war called Superwar, and most of all, gin rummy. One of my fondest memories of growing up is big games of gin rummy, played with parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and always (at least in our hearts) my grandfather, who loved playing cards and taught us all. (A.J.'s rule for the ages: "No speculating.")
In addition to cards, my family loved playing Master Mind, Boggle, and Booby Trap when I was younger, followed by Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, and Pictionary as we got older. Then there were the weird games like the Peanut Butter and Jelly game and the McDonald's board game. What can I say? It was the seventies. I have a story about every game.
The night before my wedding, I played games and ate pizza with my closest friends and family. It was perfect!
Games are such a wonderful way to connect, even if you don't feel like talking. Last Friday night, we showed up at our friends' house to celebrate Shabbat with a group of families we're close with. It's a tradition I love, but I was particularly exhausted this Friday and not really energetic enough for conversation. So when the host family's six-year-old was looking for someone to play Laser Maze with, you can bet I was (you got it!) game.
Cool! My kids don't seem as into games as my sister and I were growing up (they always want/need an adult to play with them). Guess we should have more game nights in the new year and generate another generation of board-gamers.
ReplyDeleteGame nights are awesome. A game that we've enjoyed multigenerationally this year is Telestrations (a combination of Pictionary and Telephone. Have fun! :-)
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