Let the Games Begin!
“You can’t use that word!”
“Sure I can. It’s a perfectly good word. W-A-Z-N-A. I waznaable to be at your costume party because my troubadour outfit waznaback from the cleaners!”
“ARGGGHHH!”
“OK, how about this one. Z-A-W-A-N? As in, ‘Is this zawanyou wanted?’”
“Concede. You lose. You are a loser with 5 leftover letters. There is no hope for you!”
The laughter escalated into squeals as my sons pelted their sister with Scrabble tiles. They were gathered around the kitchen table engaged in one of their relentless holiday game fests. They are three very different individuals, living three very different lives, but at home, around a board or card game, they still bond in laughter and friendly competition as they did when they were younger.
We have always been a family that enjoyed playing games. When the children were little we played Candyland and Cootie at home and countless rhyming and word games in the car locating colors, out of state license plates, and “I spying” for miles and miles. The games were fun, but I suspect there was more going on that just moving plastic pieces on a board or spying a cow as we passed a grassy field. We were learning to give and take, to win and lose gracefully, and to respect one another as individuals. Games have a way of encouraging that.
As the ages of our children increased, so did the complexity of our games. Monopoly, Life, and Scrabble replaced plastic bugs and lollypops. The kids learned how to strategize and think critically, as well as how to get their Dad’s goat by scooping up the real estate he had his eye on or claiming a double letter score and blocking the word I was planning to use. There was equality around the game board as we all learned to laugh at ourselves, to accept our mistakes, to enjoy another’s victory.
Special occasions have always been a favorite time for games at our house too. Ever since the kids were little, I’ve enjoyed creating silly games for our family birthday parties. On birthdays, the one celebrating gets to choose the dinner menu and dessert, but Mom plans the entertainment. Several years ago, our daughter happened to be at home on her birthday while on tour with a drama group from her university. All six of the students and their director stayed at our house for a week, doing performances and theater camps during the day and eating and sleeping on every available surface at night. When I asked if they’d like to join in a family party for our daughter’s 19thbirthday, they were all enthusiastic. They decided to compose a special video for her and I went to work figuring out the games.
The night of the party we gathered around a table decorated with inexpensive plastic toys, colorful streamers, and confetti. Our daughter donned the obligatory tacky “I am the Birthday Princess” crown and we dined on her favorite casserole. After the meal, it was time for our games. We had “pilot practice” where everyone had to fly a small plastic plane off the second floor balcony, trying to land near a target placed on the living room floor below. Then in teams they competed to arrange her school photos in chronological order. After that we had a “grand prix” where we raced matchbox cars down the middle of the dining room table, trying to maneuver our vehicles as close as possible to the opposite end without going off. The kids had a great time and so did we. Afterwards, while I swept up confetti and took down streamers, one of the girls came into the kitchen to help.
“I couldn’t believe you and your husband got right in there with us. That was so cool,” she said, lining up the toy cars on the counter.
“Don’t you and your family do silly things together?” I asked.
“Not really. Everyone’s so busy. And my parents are pretty serious.”
We finished cleaning up and she joined the others viewing the birthday video, but I sat in the kitchen sipping a cup of coffee. I thought of all the stories these kids would tell about Anne’s crazy parents. And then I thought of something else. How glad I was that we weren’t too busy to be silly now and then. So much of the time we need to be organized and mature. We need to stick to business and accomplish important tasks at work, school, or home. But we also need to remember that it’s a good thing to laugh and play together, to not take ourselves too seriously, to create happy shared memories. Just then a pink plastic airplane whizzed by my nose. I looked around to see my husband standing in the doorway, a victorious grin on his face. Let the games begin!