Games People Play

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I’m thrilled when cardinals come to visit. I took this photo with my camera through the window.

I’m getting ready for Christmas and was thinking about the games we used to play when I was a kid. Our family was big on games and I found them mostly boring. When I was young, I went along and played. When I hit my teens, I no longer wanted to and said no thanks.

We played board games like Monopoly, Life and Clue. My brother and I played a military strategy game called Stratego.

My parents were into cards. They hosted Pinochle and Bridge nights. I’ll never forget the card table that would come out of the closet, legs unfolded and stood in the center of our small living room in our first house.

We played Gin Rummy, Knock Rummy, Demon and Poker as a family. When we moved to our new home in the countryside, the game table, a round one that was permanent, was placed next to a window seat in the corner of the living room with huge windows. I soon realized that I could peak at people’s cards in the reflection of the windows at night.

With my kids and DIL coming for Christmas, I’d like to play a few games. I’ve got Catch Phrase, the electronic hand held game where two teams try to guess phrases through clues and gestures. It’s very much like Charades, but the electronic device gives players a choice of categories and then the word or phrase. The kids played Catch Phrase for hours at swim meets.

I also bought a few decks of cards. My daughter and I like to play Demon which is a fast-paced double solitaire type of fun.

Our family played Poker when the kids were still living at home. Our favorite game was Texas Hold’em. Before kids, my husband and I played two board games — Pente and Trivial Pursuit. Those are tucked away in the closet and may need to be dusted off. My son said he’s not sure our Trivial Suit cards from the 1980s or 1990s will be fair. I say why not?

Do you enjoy playing games with family and friends? What games did you play growing up? What games do you play now?

The cardinal visited my AI bird feeder, Bird Buddy, after I took my own photos.

44 thoughts on “Games People Play”

  3. I remember being a 6 year old and practicing counting and math by learning to play poker! When my kids were young we played board games until they got too busy with their own stuff, and the newfangled thing called “video games” were invented and then Nintendo killed the board game fun 🙂 I think all my kids have various games and game nights with friends at times and we all enjoy random trivia

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  4. I love games. Our family always played games when I was growing up and we still do when we get together. My parents had pinochle nights and bridge too. As a family we played Rummy the most. I think the specific name is Russian Rummy. its not Rummy 500. When I met my husband and said I loved Rummy he said he did too, but we realized we weren’t talking about the same kind. LOL! Me and him play a lot of Rummy 500 together. Its perfect for two people. We played alot of Clue, Life and Monopoly growing up, and Battleship and Probe.
    I have sweet memories of playing Parchesi and Dominoes with my grandma when I would visit her.
    Card Golf is what my family likes to play now when we get together. My parents taught it to us years ago.
    Boggle was another one we played alot.
    The newest game we are enjoying is called Hitster, a music game. Its fun. LOL about your son saying your Trivial Pursuit game wouldn’t be fair.

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  5. The cardinal is SO very handsome.
    I grew up playing games like monopoly, clue and sorry! (I’m not overly excited, I believe it did have the exclamation point) I grew up watching my grandfather play endless rounds of solitaire at his kitchen table, a cigarette with the extra filter hanging from his lips or in an adjacent ashtray. He later taught me all sorts of versions of solitaire, but I can only remember the standard one now.
    My kids loved playing games, but one of them always pooped out before the ending and we still give her a hard time about it.
    Have a great time playing whatever games you decide on. For me, I think you should totally play the old school Trivial games; you’ll have a leg up!

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  6. My parents would play Bridge with my Aunt Mildred and Uncle Eddie every week. They told my brother and I that if we were quiet while they played, they would all play penny poker with us when their game was over. It was probably the only time my brother and I ever behaved. As we got older we got into Pinochle. Now, we play Cribbage. Playing cards together was how we communicated as a family. As far as board games go, Scrabble was a big favorite when we were old enough to play well.

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    • Thanks for sharing your memories. Yes, cards were how we communicated as a family growing up. I recently visited my son and we bought a Scrabble game. He beat me every single time. I may not get out Scrabble over Christmas. I play a Scrabble app with my daughter and she beats me too.

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  8. When we thought the kids were too obsessed with video games, we would try to get them into card games – poker, gin rummy, aggressive games of spoons or games like scrabble. Anything that might require conversation instead of blindly staring at a screen. Ha, ha.

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    • That’s a good idea. Our son was into video games, but not our daughter. We ended up getting Wii sports and an air guitar game. That helped a bit. Swim meets were great for the kids to play games under the popup tents. They invented word games to play, played Catch Phrase and cards.

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  9. I love your bird pics! We played a lot of card games growing up, along with Monopoly, Life, Yahtzee. I still love playing games. We had a dinner party the other night and ended up playing Golf, a card game for several hours. So much fun. Hugs, C

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    • Thank you! I got some great hawk photos today. One guy was hanging out in our backyard for eight hours. Yes, those were games we played along with cards. Sounds like a fun dinner party!

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  10. We played a lot of board games when my brothers and I were young, but I don’t so much now… although I really enjoy them. We played a really fun game at a friend’s house… I wish I could remember what it was called. It involved teams (in our case, men against women) and offering clues to your teammates so they could guess the answer.

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    • We played board games when we were young, because we weren’t allowed to watch more than two TV shows per day and there was no internet! Your game sounds like the one I mentioned Catch Phrase. But I’m sure it’s another one similar.

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  14. We’ve had many visits from the cardinals lately, too. They’re so beautiful!

    Yes, we’ve always enjoyed games. When I was young, it was Monopoly, Life, and Candyland. When a little older, it was lots of Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit. Our family’s favorite cooperative party game is Just One, followed by Codenames. Splendor and Ticket to Ride are also fun and easy to learn. Hope you have a great holiday with the family, E.A.!

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  15. Love your cardinal pics! I’ll be doing the Christmas Bird Count in a couple days.
    My family had regular game nights, sometimes board games, sometimes cards. Clue, Monopoly, Tripoly, Solo. Played other games with kids, such as Life, Risk, Stratego, etc. Anout the only games Inolay with hubby are cribbage or (rarely) Uno or Scrabble.

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      • I agree! When we visited our daughter and SIL last Sept., they had bought a new game that we played one night and it was so much fun, lots of laughter. It’s called “I should’ve known that” kind of like trivia. My husband and I were impressed that they had suggested playing it. They’re in their early thirties so not too young to be out of the game playing age. But they find a balance between screens and books and games, etc. 🙂

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