game night

In the seemingly never ending winter months, after our holiday madness is over, we like to set aside one night a week just to play games, as a family. And video games don't count.

This year it has been Yahtzee. (good for math skills, you know...)Yahtzee was my father's family's game of choice. Each year, after the holiday meal had been eaten and all of the dishes cleaned up and put away, my grandmother and great grandmother would pull out their packs of cigarettes, their ashtrays, and a cup of coffee, and the women would play Yahtzee while the men took naps in front of the TV. We would play for HOURS, the air would become just blue with smoke as the dice rattled across the dining room table. We would each fill up a score sheet, and start another. It was never too intense or competitive, I loved to hear their stories that they shared as we passed the cup around to take a turn.

I remember the times I would stay overnight at my Grandma Betty's house-when I woke up in the morning, I would hear the dice rattling across the table while she enjoyed her cigarette. She would play by herself-it was kind of her idea of the morning newspaper.

So we are keeping up the tradition, in a new way. Without all of that tobacco.