Family Game Night. . . .

Winter is creeping upon us for real now.....the excitement of Christmas is over and the temperatures in the Northeast are finally cold enough to support snow instead of rain....

What that really means is that evenings can get very L-O-N-G.....and siblings 

can start to argue.....wrestle.....annoy....and drive their parents CRAZY!!

I never like our default family activity to be watching t.v. or a movie, so I 

thought that I'd share some of our favorite things to do on a cold night....

We love to grab some popcorn, hot chocolate and play games....here are some unique games that we have that go beyond Uno and Go-Fish!

Sleeping Queens

This game was designed by a 6 year old but even my almost teen-aged son loves it.  The goal is to "awaken" the 12 queens who are worth a certain 

amount of points...along the journey there are opportunities to steal queens and put them to sleep....a great game that lasts about 20 minutes and encompasses ALL ages!

Rat-A-Tat-Cat

This has been a family favorite for almost 7 years!  Our dear friends in Wisconsin sent it to us and this game now goes on every family vacation with us!  The goal is to get the lowest amount of points....the challenge is that you can't keep looking at the cards!  Yep...for the mom of the family who answers a million questions during the game, it's a killer on your memory, but I figure that somehow it's strengthening my brain!  

You can finish one round of this game in about 10 minutes.

Bananagrams

We purchased this game at Christmas and LOVE it! (except for the fact that my

husband kills us all because of his extensive vocabulary!)

Let me preface this with I HATE the game of Scrabble...there is something tedious and OCD about that game for me.....crooked letter tiles drive me crazy?!

In Bananagrams, each person builds their own board and you are racing against

all of the other players.....the game goes SO much faster than Scrabble!

All ages can play this one....you'll just have to supervise whether your new reader is actually making real words!

Here are some other games that we are in the process of learning.....

Ratuki

This game resembles Dutch Blitz.

Carcassonne

A little bit like Settler's of Catan

Dominion

Yeah..if you know how to play this, let us know...we're still deciphering the instruction manual!

I added the Amazon widget to my side bar that includes all these games...obviously, if you purchase from the widget I earn a percentage.  

But truly, these are just games that were recommended to our family and have provided hours of laughing....some arguing....and a great basis for family time!

Happy gaming!