Planting Chums – Week 2 – Fun Games – A story of family

My daughter, Hannah, is hosting a Planting Chums get to know you on her blog Aspire.  She’s also got amazing give-aways, and if I wasn’t her mother, I’d be putting my entry in NOW. She’s got several prints, some amazing jewelry, a home-made journal, and more.  More than the give-aways, what I love about Planting Chums?  Is the ability to fellowship…to find more about our blogging buddies lives…that’s beauty.

Click HERE to go to her blog and link up.

1. I love games.
2. I am very competitive.
3. I really, really, really dislike losing.

So when Hannah came up with this topic I was thrilled.  Pick a game?  Tell why I like it? This should be fun and easy.  I began to think of all the games that I love to play: Scrabble, Killer Bunnies (and yes, that truly is a game…I might have to put a link up to prove this one…), Settlers of Catan (now that is one game where I really dislike losing), Phase 10, LoopIt, and more.  But the one game that I really love to play?  And, ironically, I only play it several times a year.  The game?

Cheat on your Neighbor

Now perhaps you know it as Nertz, or Solitaire Frenzy, or Nuts, or Pounce or more.  In fact the popular game Dutch Blitz is quite similar in feel and play.  I like to think of Cheat on Your Neighbor as Dutch Blitz on steroids. Whatever the name…I love playing it.  It’s basically a crazy game of solitaire played with a bunch of friends where you try to get rid of your pile of base cards and build off the aces in the middle.  See this wikipedia linnk on Nertz for more because I could never explain it properly…it’s one of those games where you have to play.  In fact, I have specific cards that I like to play with, including ones that I bought at a small gift shop in Valdez, Alaska only to be used for this game.

my cards

Why do I like it?  Many reasons.  Probably the biggest one is that we typically only play that game when we go up north for our annual trip to the lake.  Remember that picture from several posts ago?  That was taken at the lake.  My family, my parents, my siblings, my aunt and uncle, and my grandparents (before they both passed away) have all gone “up north” (a very Minnesotan saying) for many years.  How many?  It’s getting close to thirty.  Yes, that is 30.  And “Cheat on Your Neighbor” became THE game to play at night.

the game table

Oh, we’ve got our rules…safety ones like all nails need to be trimmed and short…and game ones like if you finish a pile by putting the Ace on you need to remove the pile.  If you don’t?  Watch out….eight other people will be yelling, “take off the pile! take off the pile!”  We laugh, and drink rootbeer floats, and put soothing aloe on our sunburned faces, and complain that the reason we’re not as fast is because we’re getting old.  But, you know why I truly love this game?  (again, besides the fact that I AM pretty good at it, and can typically win or cause the winner to seriously sweat.)

It’s about family.  And generations.  And memories.

my kids on our dock

Did you think I could get through a post without nostalgia? Or linking it to life?  Or finding a deeper meaning? Well, not today…in fact, I love looking at the everyday, or the special, or the insignificant and finding beauty and joy in those moments.  With this game, it’s all about our family.  My children have all come up to the lake since the first summer of their lives.  We talk about going there constantly.  My dad will tell them that there’s only six months till we go there…right after Christmas.  It’s a huge thing.  For a week of life all of my relatives say NO to the daily grind and YES to family.  We cook together, we eat together, we play games, we talk, we rest, but most importantly?  We’re together.  It’s teaching my children the beauty in family, and that we VALUE family.

my girls with their cousin

Hannah and Chloe just learned how to play “Cheat on Your Neighbor” two summers ago.  (And, yes, I was easy on them while they were learning…most of the time.) I taught them how to play a couple weeks before we left.  There was something generational about teaching a simple card game to them.  Something that will be passed on someday.  To their children.  Now, that, gives me goosebumps.

Bottom line?  I don’t need to win.  In fact, many times while the massive frenzy of the game begins, I will quietly and quickly tell my daughters that they need to put “that 4 of spades” out, or likewise.  The most important quality of this game? That game represents family, generations, and traditions.  That is priceless.