Family Unity

Once in a while, my family likes to play a game of RISK. Sometimes we'll even get a game of Monopoly going. But we only play these games when we have loads of time. We haven't played in a long time, and my daughter gave us a new RISK game for Christmas that the children have been bugging us to play.

I suggested yesterday, that since today is a holiday and none of us have work or school, last night would be a good night to play a long game like RISK or Monopoly. (I am RARELY the one to suggest such a thing, as I am not a night owl anymore.) Needless to say they were a little shocked...but they jumped on it and decided they wanted to play RISK.

We haven't played it in SO long, at least I haven't. We have the computer version which is much faster to play...lol. Anyway, we waited till about 9:30 -- thinking my oldest son would show up to play, but he didn't and we gave up on him and started. We got my brother-in-law to play as well, and I teamed up with my hubby so there were six of us playing.

It was actually one of the best times we've had as a group. My second oldest son lost first, and I was afraid we'd have a temper show, but I suggested he have a cookie (we'd made cookies to eat while we played) and everyone busted up laughing. I was proud of him.

My youngest was the next one to loose, and he wasn't as good about it. It's funny how everyone has a hard time losing. In playing games, or in many things in life, you have to have a winner or a looser. It's just the way things are geared. Sometimes there can be more than one winner, but there is always a looser.

I think how we loose is sometimes as important as how we win. There is an art to being graceful in interpersonal behavior. We've tried to teach our children to be good sports, but it doesn't always take. Sometimes it takes maturing. Our 18 year old still has a hard time loosing -- even though he protests that he's fine.

We ended up at 2 am, with just the three of us left. My hubby and brother-in-law were almost the same size armies, and my oldest daughter was in between. I gave up -- that's a little late for me. I kissed him good night and crawled into bed.

My hubby told me in the morning that they stayed up till 3 am and we won! I guess he turned in all his cards and the exchange was up to 60 armies, and that put him at 100 -- my brother-in law quickly decided that there was no way he wanted to spend an hour tossing dice to loose, so he conceded the game.

My point is, that for the first time in a long time, we played a game that pretty much the whole family was involved in and enjoyed playing together. We usually play games on Sunday because that's the only day that everyone is home together in the afternoon and has time.

Another game we got for Christmas that we've discovered we really like, is called Catch Phrase. It's kind of like the old game Password, but better, and it's been fun to see the generation gap with some of the phrases we have to describe without using the words. We kind of forced my autistic son to join the game -- he usually won't play -- an he even enjoyed it. He actually guessed some of the clues.

Do you have a game night? If not, I would recommend starting one. It's great family fun! Listening to yourldsradio.com is also a great way to have background music for the game time.


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