The games we play

In good weather, we like to be outside. We love to ride our bikes, play at the park, chase each other down the street, sit, cook, eat, drink, laugh at each other, whatever. During the winter, we're forced inside. We still get out to go skiing and such, but mostly we're indoors. There are things to do inside, of course. But one can only organize so many closets before cabin fever sets in. Margaret already has cabin fever. She keeps wanting to play outside which we encourage her to do as much as the weather permits. Last weekend we fueled her outdoor fever when we picked up a tether ball on clearance (We got it at All Sports Outlet which is going out of business. Just another local business succumbing to today's horrible economic environment. But since that's too depressing to dwell on, I'm just going to pretend getting a half-price tether ball is a good thing). I told her that the tether ball was an outside game and that she'd have to wait until spring to play it. She was pretty disappointed. Luckily for Margaret, her dad is a rare specimen, in that he can actually make things — instead of being one of those that just buys things. He rigged a pole in the backyard so we could take advantage of the balmy 50-degree weather. But as fun as tether ball is (who knew it could actually be a work out), it is still mostly too cold to be outside very much. To entertain ourselves, we've been playing a lot of games. Margaret got some great games for Christmas, like Uno Flash (which makes me a bit anxious) and Wits and Wagers (this is a great party game and even little kids like Mar can win). Our best game-playing friends, Rob and Tracee taught us a new card game called Dimwit that is addictive and really fun. But the best game we've played so far this winter is the game of Things. Have you ever played this? Oh man. A group of us played this game for hours last Friday. I can't remember laughing more. But let me tell you, when I saw that they pictured a kid on the Web site for this game, I was a little perplexed. There's no way in Hades, I'd play this game with Mar. The box suggests the age range is "Adult," but we read that as "Completely juvenile and mostly disgusting" — we horrified even ourselves with the base level of our answers. But I think that says more about my friends, my husband and myself than it does the game. I know there are a lot of people wishing away this winter, but I can honestly say, we're spending our time together and having a good time doing it.