Scrabble Mania

Oh, the holidays. I always associate this time of year with lots of board games and more food than I need to eat. Walking through the kitchen on my way to the living room, I grab a cookie. Bored during the board game, I grab a cookie. Finished with dinner, I grab a cookie. Yummy.

Anyways, this post is not about cookies. This post is about Scrabble. For a large family, board games are one of the few activities which everyone takes part in. In this house, Scrabble is the game to play. Monopoly used to steal the stage, but that was before some of the family players were known to be cheaters.I mean come on, it is not actual property they are stealing. Jeeze.

While staring at my Scrabble tiles last night with dismay—way too many vowels to make a word that is not Hawaiian—my memory pulled up an old episode of The Simpsons: Bart the Genius. What has seven letters, ends is “bo” and starts with “kwy”? The answer: kwyjibo. Bart’s definition of kwyjibo: a bald, overweight, North American ape of  below average intelligence. Doh!

If you wanna know a bit more about some killer board games, check out this interesting post. You’ll note that my family is certainly not the only family that puts way too much energy into winning a board game =D

Happy Holidays… especially to all the kwyjibos out there!

Holiday’s Cheery Chaos

Ho-ho-ho… dreidel, dreidel, dreidel… oh come all ye… fa-la-la-la-laaaaa.

From Thanksgiving to New Years families come together to celebrate the traditions that they hold dear. No matter what denomination, or what calendar, the ‘family time’ is a pervading theme of the season.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my family and I enjoy the wonder that seeps into this time of year. However, family time can be…overwhelming. The larger the family, the louder the gatherings. Over the years, I have perfected the art of mentally ‘checking-out’ during times when the jumbled conversation and the hub-bub gets to be too much–being the youngest and the quietest offers quite a cloak of invisibility (*Mr. Harry Potter’s cloak has got nothing on me =D*).

When the winter holidays roll around, my family gathers into a single location and lets time creep to a standstill. Hours are packed with chatter, board games and outings. Packed onto a ski lift or around a dinning room table, grown-ups gab and little kids compete for attention. Ah, the holiday chaos.

Thinking about these occasions brings to mind a scene from a movie, of course. I am sure that there are a multitude of films that clearly delineate the family dynamic I am describing, but one film in particular creates the desultory gathering effortlessly: While You Were Sleeping. In this film, Sandra Bullock’s character spends time with another person’s family during the holidays. To see the scene I have in mind, hit minutes 4:35 through 5:51. I have to admit, this group is surprisingly tame. But now I think you understand what I mean when I say ‘cheery chaos.’ *Mmmm, these mashed potatoes are so creamy.*