She Won that Round

In the McPeak household growing up, after Family Meetings, we had Family Game Night. Yes, we had meetings and we would talk about really important stuff like reasons for why we deserve a raise in our allowance. Of course, a process was involved. We had to produce a petition and read it to the family at the next scheduled Family Meeting night, typically every Sunday. Here is a quick example for you. Em, Kev, Meg and I wanted a 25 cent raise because we probably wanted to buy more Swedish Fish at Whitehall pool's snack bar. Writing justifications as to why a raise was in order reminded us of school - school was out for the summer. Em, Kev and I didn't get that raise that summer. Megan, on the other hand, liked school (in our young opinions - she actually used her desk in her room!!) so she wrote a petition and got the raise she deserved that summer. Megan kept proof, so if you are lucky, she will whip it out for all to see. These meetings lasted well into our teen years.

OK, back to the topic of Family Game Night. The Yacobs are gearing up for this wonderful night but we aren't there yet. Grandma and Grandpa got Layla hyped about games when they introduced Picture Bingo to her at the beach. I couldn't stand playing another round of Bingo, so I decided to buy two of my favorite games as a kid; Hi-Ho Cheery-O and Memory. Layla asks us to play one of these games with her every morning, noon and night.

Cousin Matt visited us last month and taught Layla Memory with Thomas the Train. This game is tough. Every train on the card looks the same. The cards are color coated so we set a side one of the four colors and play with that group. Each color group has 10 matches.

Layla watched Thomas the Train once and was frightened by a clip of a man shoveling coal in fire on a train (I'm sure there is a correct term for what I am describing). Why I decided to buy a Thomas the Train Memory set? I'm not sure. Gender neutral perhaps. What ever happened to matching pictures of generic objects? These games are harder to find at your local toy store.

I told Layla it's nice to shake your opponent's hand and tell him/her, "good game" when the game is over...win or lose. Last night, after reading Curious George, she took my hand, shook it, looked me straight in the eye and said, "good book". She is a good sport! She won that round.