Game Night - Time I am Never Getting Back

    When I was a kid I loved games.  My parents were not "games" people, in fact I am pretty sure that they hated games.  I enjoyed playing board games with Gabe.  We would put a little Grace to bed and the pull out the snacks and the board games, it was good fun.  For some reason the fuddy duddy has slipped in and I am not so much a game fan anymore.  Perhaps it is more the fact that I know what's in store for me when I play games with the kids.  Someone's going to have a temper tantrum and someone's going to accuse someone of cheating and someone is going to stomp away from the table (usually me).  Games at our house are not a good idea, well at least that is my opinion.

    This year for Christmas Gracie asked for some games.  "Oh No I thought".  She asked for the game "Logos", she will never know them, it will just frustrate her.  Needless to say she really wanted it for Christmas and that is exactly what she got.  Since the second that she unwrapped it she has been harassing us to play it.  The plan was to put a movie on for the other kids and just the three of us would play. All of the kids really wanted to play ... mistake number one!

Grace just couldn't take it anymore!

    The game began with Elly singing "Santa Claus is Coming To Town", at the top of her little lungs.  Apparently she only knows the words "Santa Claus is coming to town." and she sings it like Bruce Springsteen.  I thought I might loose my mind.  Riley would only speak using a combination French / Italian accent (did I mention that it was funny at first, but got old very quickly.  Did I mention that she did it for the whole game?).  Both Rowan and Riley were so excited that they could not keep still in their seats, they just kept dancing around.  At one point Elly was not only singing Santa Claus is coming to town, but she was making our game pieces kiss and talk to each other, you know instead of what the place holders are supposed to do... hold our place.

    There were parts of the game that the kids were being so loud that you could not hear the question.  When it was Rowan's turn to read a question, when the question was answered he would do this crazy "awoooga" sound.  He kept switching it up, and no one knew if  "Awooga" meant they had given the correct answer or the incorrect answer.  He would then be disgusted that no one knew.

    There were parts of that two hours that I considered slamming my face in the side door, just so that I could quit playing.  There were times that I honestly thought I might loose my mind.  At the end of it, with all of the chaos and craziness it was a lot of fun.  Most of the fun was poking fun at each other.  At one point Christopher laughed so hard I thought he might need CPR.  

    Will I schedule a once a week games night?  No, no I will not, I am not sure what little sanity that I have left could take it.  Maybe I will be more open to family games.  Yes, there will be a guaranteed temper tantrum (maybe from me), but there are also guaranteed gut laughs (sometimes from the temper tantrum).  We love to watch movies together, but watching movies is passive.  When we play games, we are all together, we are talking and laughing we are all interacting.  Perhaps I should be more open to games... I guess we will see.