Game Night!

We were supposed to go to a Christmas party this weekend. Half the house is still sick though, so we decided to have family game night instead. Rod and I finished up making some of Owen's meals and made hot chocolate for everyone else.

We have several very competitive people in our household along with a few perfectionist types who hate to lose. It makes game time very interesting! The Settlers of Catan is one game that very rarely brings out tears and yelling. There can be some interesting alliances though. This time Devon was pitted against Connor and Cameron (who had admitted defeat halfway through the game). While they were trying to trap each other into bad moves no one noticed that Mommy was winning. I ended the game with a huge final play after being convinced only a few turns earlier that there was no possible way for me to win. Rod was handicapped by having several of the little kids taking turns being on his team, since even the expansion set doesn't have enough game pieces for all of us.

 Duncan has a rather unusual strategy, just winning isn't good enough for him. He insists on only using special cards to win with. Morgan is always nice to everyone and gives us whatever trades we want. Connor and Devon will do just about anything to beat each other. Owen only cares about rolling the dice and holding a sheep card while making Baa-ing noises. It's so interesting to watch everyone's personalities come out while we play. (Mommy happens to be one of the perfectionist types who hates to lose, while Daddy tend to give the little ones anything they want).

 I really think we need to work harder at making family game night a more regular activity around here. Especially as the kids are getting older and everyone is going in so many different directions. When everyone was little, it sometimes seemed like we had too much together time. Now it can be days before we are all together.