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I love the holidays!
I love the holidays. The food and decorations are part of it, but for me it’s my family gathering together. My father wasn’t in the military, but his job and promotions moved us across the country many times. With five brothers and sisters, family was home, not a town.
For a number of years it seemed that every time we moved, one of my siblings stayed behind. We all took different roads, but during the holidays we travel to be together. It’s chaos, with air mattresses and bodies lining the floors at night, but it’s a blast.
In the evenings my sister-in-law bakes cookies or chex-mix and cut throat Scrabble begins. We all consider ourselves the wit of the family, so it’s a contest of one liners, as we chose our words carefully on the board. My younger brother is one of those guys, who likes silence while he thinks. His turn is when everyone starts munching loudly on the chex-mix, or my sister and I discus politics. My older brother didn’t visit for the holidays until the last few years. He came to the table with the sure knowledge he’d whip our ass in word play. He’s learned humility.
The baker of cookies is one of the loveliest women I know. I mean that both figuratively and literally, she’s beautiful and the best thing that every happened to my brother. She is also a formidable scrabble player. Two years ago, I drank too much wine and called her a Bi***. I no longer drink while we play. (I still feel guilty. She’s that nice.)
We become so competitive that the bathroom reading material is the Scrabble dictionary. The kids on the play station in the other room slowly drift in following the laughter and pull up a chair to watch. We’re always our funniest when we sit down at this game. I love the holidays. I adore being with my family.
Holidays are the only time I play scrabble.
What about you, is there something you only do at holidays because it’s part of a family tradition?
Rhianna Samuels
“Let you laughter be bright and your love incandescent”
“Shaking Off The Dust”/ Jan 1, 2008
Rhiannasamuels.com
http://samhainpublishing.com/coming/shaking-off-the-dust
We have played Scrabble, but more often we play Outburst, Taboo, Family Feud, or Catch A Phrase. Sometimes euchre. If the weather is decent, we play a little basketball.
Happy Thanksgiving to you, Rhianna!
The younger crowd and my mom love poker, it the new national pass time. Mom keeps a jar of pennies and nickles. Of course they are all growing up now and more apt to bring a play station or game cube along.
For the adults though, it’s Scrabble. I think it has become such a competition for the holidays that we look forward to the nonsense and jokes.
Rhianna