Family Game Night

We started late. After 8 o'clock p.m. If you ask me, that's late to start a game night but all things considered, I'm surprised we even played.

It looked as if the evening would be disastrous because my Sister, Michele, couldn't make it. Her son, Donte, came home from school with little blisters on his chest and back; we're guessing chicken pox. My Aunt had taken a senior day trip to Santa Barbara and was too pooped to pop and brother Rusty, as it turns out, doesn't like playing games (What?). We were really counting on Gloria and Andrew to show up but Andrew had a church function to attend, so we sat and waited.

Why we waited, I still don't know, but we did. 7:49 p.m. - phone rings...everyone freezes in anticipation..."Gloria?", "hey, you guys still up", "Yeah, we're here waiting", "okay, be right there"....hung up. "They're on the way.", BIG exhale and back to where we were...waiting.

10 minutes later, the door bell rings. Back to freeze. Karina gets up and opens the door "It's them!"..."YES!!" Let the games begin. We're excited now. There's a new air in the room and the excitement is building because when it comes to games, my family is competitive.

Of course, before we can start we have to get through the directions. For any normal family, this shouldn't be a problem but for us it's like a circus. One person tries to read out loud but no one is listening so the next brave soul grabs the directions and makes a second attempt, if you couldn't listen the first time, why would you listen the second? What are we dealing with here? A room full of school children? Apparently because we do what any group of school children would do and toss the directions to one side and jump in feet first.The game begins and everything appears to be going smoothly except at some point I realize that if the team who's turn it is answers the question correctly, there's no reward. No extra move, no 2nd turn, no nuthin'. So why play? If I'm not gonna get rewarded, why am I playing?

The reason the question came to mind is that Carlos and I are a team and we're in...you may have guessed...last place and it isnt' that we haven't answered any of the questions correctly, we've just been rolling low numbers so we're not traveling much. So I'm trying to figure out how we're supposed to get ahead, if not by answering correctly.

By this point, we're half way through the game. So I ask "Isn't something supposed to happen if you answer a question correctly?" Duh...there's a mad scramble to find the directions. This time through we're all ears because who doesn't want to win?

We get it all figured out and get back to the game.....by some stroke of luck Carlos and I win. We were in last place so it wasn't expected, but from Carlos' parade you'd think we just won the Indy 500, the Kentucky Derby and the Gold Cup all at once. He's up high fiving everyone, he's break dancing, moon walking, spreading his feathers and then making his acceptance speech. Seriously, this went on for a good 6, 7 minutes.

To say it was funny, would be putting it mildly. I don't think I've had that good a laugh in a very long time. My stomach muscles hurt, I had tears running down my cheeks, I had to sit so I wouldn't fall and we all looked like....well, kinda ugly now that I picture it. You know that kinda laugh that makes a beautiful person ugly?

Well, let's see what next month holds. God willing we'll do it again except next time, I'm emailing out a copy of the directions in advance.

Game anyone?