Games

My family isn't prone to acting and other such demonstrations of artistic creativity. Therefore, games such as Pictionary and Charades, while a fun challenge to most, leave us confounded. We played Pictionary last week and the only reason anybody made it off of the first square at all is because my two boys were on a team together, and they are linked at the mind in some unnatural way. Drake drew a circle and Josiah immediately said, "Campfire!" Then Josiah drew a dot, and, while the rest of us were still setting the pencil to the paper, Drake cried out, "Spider!" We all gave them the stink-eye, but they won without any real contest.

Next game night we decided on charades. The boys are terrible actors, so the other four members of the family were giddy about this opportunity to avenge themselves. Emery had her cousin, Brooklyn, spending the night, so we put them in charge of organizing the game. They got the kind of excited only ten and eleven year old girls can generate, and spent the next hour cutting paper into squares, giggling, writing on the squares, and giggling more. That should have been a sign.

I first knew that this game was far beyond my acting ability when I drew my paper out of the hat and read, "Meeting a person for the first time who is mean." Half an hour later, with sweat running down my back, I plopped into my chair and caught my breath as Drake drew his paper out of the hat. He tried valiantly to try to get us to guess, "Woody, Toy Story." Comma included. We called it quits after Josiah spent an eternity trying his best to act out, "A person who is learning karate but isn't very good at it yet."

This is why the act of watching movies was invented.