Family Matters at Dinner: Games to Play When You're Snowed In

Lately, there's been a lot of snow where we live. While we haven't encountered any snow days off from school yet, we do tend to get a little stir crazy when the temps drop to the teens and force us inside.

This apparently prompted one of my children (my teenager, believe it or not) to want to play a word game at dinner tonight. Nope, not scrabble or words with friends. Just a plain old word game you make up as you go.

I'm pretty sure you know this one: the "I'm going on a picnic" game. In this game, someone begins with 'A' and everyone goes around in alphabetical order and adds something they're bringing. (It's supposed to be food.)

We invite you to our dysfunctional picnic, where we brought:

Anacondas (yeah I know the rules, but those were gone starting now-thanks Teenager)
Barracudas (monkey see monkey do- of course -he's impressionable at 9)
Cheese (nice and reasonable from my middle child- odd)
Dip (mommy just wants to have a nice picnic)
Elephants
Facts About the Moon
Green Beans (middle child again, how logical)
Hoagie Rolls
Iguanas
Jaguar (just one-I don't know why)
Kangaroo (again, only one)
Lake (we know it's fresh water but this is L we needed, so Lake it was- "Save the Barracudas!!!")
Man of War Octopus
Nile Crocodile
Overdone Meat (another typical M.C. response)
President Obama (Hey, why not? Apparently we can bring anything to this picnic.)
Queen Elizabeth III (Another copy cat)
Radish (yes, just one)
Sweaty Socks (enter middle child's normal type of response- glad she decided to join our weird picnic)
Tea (for the Queen)
Uxbridge
Vandalism (seems it was the only thing he thought of with the letter V since it was recently in the news)
Willow Tree with Christmas Lights (I don't know, and I didn't ask)
X-men (I'm sure it's clear we need some help here)
Yugoslavia (see President Obama)
Zebras

Well there you have it. I totally understand if you choose not to join us...

When the cold weather up north locks you indoors, the rain in the south keeps you from playing outside, or the power goes out and you're left (dare I say it) UNPLUGGED, relax and play one of these old fashioned games - all you need is your family and a sense of humor.

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