Games

It seems that around here we always seem to have a little more time to play games with the family around the holidays. We played The Family Fun game by Cranium with the kids a few days before christmas and that is a really fun game. A few times we just laughed and laughed.
Last night I played Mall Madness the Hannah Montana edition with Bethany and Felicia.
I lost, Felicia won when she finished all of her purchases first and was the first to get to the ice cream shop! That game takes more time to set up than any game I've ever played!
I also played The Mexican Train dominoes game with Sam. I have played this game before with friends and it was so much fun! With only two people, not as much, so we will save this when we have company!
Some of our favorite all time games that get played over and over have been Apples to Apples,ImagineIff, Scattergories and Life.
Right now, Ellie loves The Pretty Pretty Princess game and Candy Land.
Sam likes Connect Four and War (the card game) but his favoite for years was Battleship.
Felicia likes Mastermind and Uno a lot in addition to Life and Apples to Apples.
Bethany enjoys whatever we all play together.

Favorites from my childhood were Chutes and Ladders, Perfection, Payday and good old fashioned Charades! I never liked Mousetrap--too much stuff to set up!

One game I purchased last year was Family Dinner Games. It comes in a little tin box with little cards in it. The idea is that you pick a new card every time you eat dinner and do what ever game is on the card. They are easy, but fun. The kids love these. I purchased it on Amazon.
If your family likes to do a game night, one thing I've done to ensure that the choosing of the game doesn't take longer than the playing is to put a special coin or other object underneath a dinner plate. When everyone sits down to dinner, whoever has the plate with something underneath gets to choose the game that evening.
Whatever new games have come into your house this season, I hope you enjoy them and pass along your recommendations for your favorites!