Another winter storm hit our area Monday night. Only about 6 inches of snow this time, but the huge gusts of wind lasting several hours made for some big snow drifts, and some treacherous driving. With that also brought the cancellation of all of our activities. No school for the kids, no school for hubby, and no basketball practice or gymnastics lessons.
What’s a family of four to do on a wintery Monday night stuck at home?
It started out as four of us sitting in various spots of the house battling each other in several games of Words With Friends on our iPods. Mark brought up the suggestion to move the game to the kitchen table for an actual game of Scrabble, where we proceeded to get spanked by Courtney, our 9-year old. (I helped a little with her first few plays, but in the end, the win was all hers!)
Deciding that Scrabble was getting boring (and because we didn’t want to get our butts beat again by a third grader), we decided to get out the Mexican Train Dominoes. If you haven’t played this before, this is simply a must-have for any family. It’s inexpensive, and it’s fun and easy to learn. I think the set we bought was purchased at Toys R Us for less than $20, and it’s our most favorite in our game clsoet. We weren’t sure how quickly Courtney would pick up on it, but she assured us she didn’t want a partner, and she wanted to do it herself.
Apparently, she is now a Mexican Train PROFESSIONAL as she whipped down her last domino, yelling out, “WHAM BAM, TURKEY AND HAM!!” and excitedly winning the round. My sides hurt from laughing so hard, and it was the highlight of my week! Best thing, the kids weren’t fighting, the dogs were behaving, and it was FUN in our house.
We ended up staying up later than usual, with the kids having yet another 2-hour delay yesterday morning. It was the most fun we’d had in a long time. As Mark & I laid in bed that night, we laughed about how much fun it was having Family Game Night, and how we definitely needed to do this more often. It was nice to not be rushing around to a million different activities, eating dinner on the go, and hardly having the time to have a conversation with each other.
Family game night rocks, and I can’t wait to do it again. Hopefully it won’t take another snowstorm to make it happen.
Best. Night. Ever.
Disclosure: The games are mine, and the opinions are mine. So there.
