Family Fun

While my parents were visiting, we rediscovered a few family games that we haven't attempted in years! And a couple my son has NEVER attempted.

UNO
My parents travel with their UNO cards, especially when visiting us. My mother is generally a nice person, but boy, does she know how to haul out the "draw 4"s! We got a good few dirty games under the belt, averaging 4 a night, every night... When they left, my parents presented us with our own set of UNO cards! If there are only two players, it's pretty good to start the game with a couple of "skip" and "draw 2" cards, we've learnt! My son is beating me silly right now, but payback is coming.

Putt-Putt
This is one I haven't done in years, and my son never had. But one day we headed down to our local course, right on the beachfront. Of course it comes with its own unofficial sanddrifts, but we had loads of fun. My dad is a golfer, and his putting skills aren't bad. Mom is pretty good too - I was rusty, and Jason only caught on a few holes into the game. He still is getting into the concept of "drawing imaginary lines" from his club to the sides, to the hole in order to aim, but by game 2 I was fighting him off for a decent placed finish.

Bowling
Unfortunately Jason and I didn't get to do this one, but my brothers, their wives and my parents did - our local bowling alley has closed down and will re-open in a brand-new venue next month, so the nearest one is in Cape Town. Surprise, surprise - mom won! She who had never played before, and is not the best at aiming (or cutting a straight slice of bread, for that matter...). Those who thought they'd win came last. Justice! :)

Quick-Scrabble
For adults only. And not for the reasons you may be thinking. Never heard of Quick-Scrabble? Well, here's how it works. All the pieces are turned upside down in the middle of a table, and everyone takes 7. At the "Go", we all turn our pieces over and start making a crossword in front of us - re-arranging as many times as we want. First one to use all their pieces shouts "GO" and everyone has to take another 2 - finished or not. And so on... until the last one to finish all their pieces, with no more available to take, says "stop". They get all the loose pieces from everyone else, then scores are added up by counting letter values, doubling letters used twice etc. The winner gets to add in the values of all the loose pieces too. Why for adults only? Well, kids are generally not that fast at putting words together, nor is their vocab huge enough to be able to come up with the wierd combinations needed in an instant. But my son is getting there... The last time my dad was out here we got into a major competition - it was always "just one more game", late as it got, or as close to needing to leave as it was. We're both hyper-competitive with Quick-Scrabble! :)

Which all goes to prove that there's life beyond the TV.