Game Time

I love to play games.  Board games, party games, computer games, murder party games, card games…I love at least a few from every style of game play out there.  There was a long stretch of time when we had a monthly game night with friends in the guise of a Pampered Chef Party.  I had a yahoogroups for people who were interested, and I would shoot out an email to let them know the date, theme and sales of the next party.  I would toss the catalogs on a side table, cover the kitchen table in delicious food, kick the kids to my backyard—which had lawn at the time—and the grown-ups would play another round or two of the game du jour.  Awesome!  And we had a crowd, too; seven to 10 families showed up every month with the no show crying on the yahoogroup emails about having to miss.

Then it stopped.  I started playing with new friends from my homeschooling circle.  It was nice for a while, but began petering out.  Not everyone likes to play games, or only likes a certain type of game.  Kids got bigger and needed more supervision--which I know is true from experience, but the fact still blows my mind.  I mean, why can 15 to 20 kids under the age of seven all play happily and get along, but even fewer of kids between the ages of six and twelve have so many problems?  I don’t get it.  Anyhow, games aren’t as fun when you have to continually be ready to put out the latest fire.

Aging kids does offer another solution, though.  At least on a small scale, I have discovered that I enjoy playing with mine!  They are getting old enough to play by the rules, be capable of winning by those rules, but not mind losing and be able to keep up the general pace.  So cool!  I made my own playmates!!!  Ok, well, God played His part, too, I suppose.  But the point is that I may have some lifelong friends who’ll play with me!