Games people play

My younger sister did a marvelous blog post on playing games and because I lack creativity this a.m. I'm blatantly copying her idea.

As my sister wrote, our family LOVED to play games. Even my dad could be counted on for a quick game of gin rummy or other card game. My grandmother taught us canasta. We played Kaluki, a Jamaican card game, for hours and hours. I love outside games like tag, hide & seek, 7-Up, freeze tag, etc. I love card games and board games and kid games. Games can teach you so many things: fairness, the benefits of friendly competition, how to be a good loser, how to be a gracious winner, strategy, how to follow rules, and most of all, the joy of working things out. My sister remembers my mom playing with her and my younger siblings, but I remember mostly playing with my brother and older cousins. I'm pretty sure my mom was too busy WITH my sister and younger siblings to play much with us -- but we're much older.

Now that I'm a mom, I've made an effort to play games with my kids as much as I can. They are both very good at them, even Anders at not-quite-three is great at taking turns. Here are some of the games we all like to play together:

1) Cariboo
2) Ker-plunk
3) Hi-Ho Cherry-O
4) Candy Land
5) Hide & Seek
6) 20 Questions
7) Go Fish

Here are the ones Dagny and I like to play:

1) Othello
2) Ziggity
3) Qwirkle
4) Mastermind
5) Sorry!
6) Uno

Here are my favorites:

1) Scrabble
2) Upwords
3) Masterpiece (does ANYONE else remember this game? It was all about famous artworks.)
4) Jenga
5) Monopoly
6) Gin, rummy, canasta, etc.
7) Connect 4
8) Battleship

What's your favorite?