Let's play!

I need to blog about my Christmas since our Christmas celebrations are really like five straight days of eating, drinking, playing games, working puzzles, and repairing/upgrading computers.

Yep. That's what we do. We love a gerund.

Blog lesson: A gerund is a verb used as a noun and ends in "ing." All of the above gerunds are objects of the preposition ... the preposition is of -- which according to old school teachers should never end a sentence, thus, the elongated unnecessaryness of this.

We don't watch movies. We don't listen to classical music. We don't take in a museum, go for a walk, or chat about philosophy....

The minute the relatives hit the door --it's -- "WHAT GAME ARE WE PLAYING FIRST?"

This year we had four days -- four 18 hour marathon days of highly and sometimes tense filled competitive games, some mental, some physical, some just lame.

My nephew's girlfriend Angie said, "When you come to the McDaniel's Christmas fetes [McDaniel is my maiden name] --- you either think so hard your brain hurts or you are so stressed out you think you will explode."

I'm pretty sure this was a compliment -- I mean, after all, what's not to like about that?

One of the first game we played was Mental, which was full of tension and competitiveness.

We broke up into pairs, [in retrospect we probably should have had larger teams] and there were seven pairs, sitting around the dining room table. A couple of these pairs were married, one was dating, and the others were random. I was teamed up with my oldest nephew, who is a great game player and more competitive than Tiger Woods. Well, that would be Tiger Woods pre- December 2009.

Wait. I'm talking golf here, readers.

Anyway.

The object of Mental was to look at four things on a list, and first figure out which one doesn't belong, and then figure out how the other three are related (according to the card), not necessarily according to logic or reason.

*tee hee*

Not a good start.

It was our first time playing the game, so the rules had to be read, and the writers of the rules were sarcastic themselves. Those writers of the rules for Mental had no idea who was about to play their game. They can't think all of their gamers are families like the Waltons.

No one in my family concedes easy to losing -- we do it graciously, but we don't do it happily -- and especially not a game that is about "challenging your brain."

Angie was right.

One of the first problem (established by the rule makers) was that you couldn't look at the card because the answer was at the bottom so the cards had to be read aloud by someone else.

Whoops.

Another problem -- there was this aspect to the game called "Steal" and "Challenge." With 14 people, that became a noise problem as well as "who's first at stealing" problem. Quite a few times I thought we could come to blows, and other times, tears.

Relative: I said Steal first.
Other relative: No, I did.
In-law: Neither of you did, I did... and then [blurts out answer].
All relatives in sync: Not fair! Not fair! New card.
Fiancee: I said "Steal" first.

And another problem ---- we thought that the answers were "dumb."
Imagine how that flew?

Relative: Those are so not types of muskets -- those are types of Civil War muskets.
Other relative: No technically, a Civil War musket used only this type of powder.
In-law: Who cares?
Relative: The powder was grown from .... [blah, blah, blah]

You see the problem. Lawd.

And one thing I noticed is that Mental was for the young -- you had to be quick to get the answer right to which of the names did THE WHO not sing under.

Boom. Chicka. Bow Wow.

Card example:

Honeysuckle Rider
April Dancer
Pussy Galore
Holly Goodhead

The one that doesn't belong -- April Dancer --- the others have being Bond Girls in common.

That's how the game was played, but remember, this was an easy one.

How bout this one?

Grand Canyon
Green Mountain
Pine Forest
Prairie.

or this one

Brahams
Hera
Shiva
Vistina

Huh? Do those and get back with me. No cheating.

There was much infighting, bickering, and glaring around the table.

It was Family Reunion Gone ---- Get the Gun, Mabel, I'm gonna have to shoot me an in-law

We played about ten rounds, and folks were yelling "STEAL" on top of each other, arguing over what the three had in common, and down right like an MTV reality show where all of us were holed up in a room too small for us and told to PLAY NICE.

We finally said, "NO MORE OF THIS GAME," and Mental was taken off the play list for the rest of the days.

Then we went to calmer games like Pass the Pigs to decompress.

"Double Razorbacks"

"All I ever do is pig out."

"She stealing my pig mojo."

"21." "24." "30" Pig out! {expletive deleted}

"There must be something wrong with me that I can't roll a leaning jowler."

That's more like it.

Upcoming Blogs:

I Can't Go to Bed Before I Finish this Puzzle
Fools Ball
Windows 7.0 Upgrade: YOU LIE.

and

Pictionary Marathon aka "Is this another all play? All Groan."