Oak Den: playing

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Monday, February 9, 2009

Sunday Night Masterpiece

By the end of a typically busy Sunday (which yesterday included the teaching we do in our meetings, and after church there was home teaching for Doug and Jake, then we went to choir practice, and finally a visiting teaching interview for me) we are all ready to be home, put on our jammies, eat some food and play a game.

Yep. Sunday night game night.

And because he is so great, Doug did all the cooking yesterday and made a 7-Layer Mexican dip for our lunch after church and then he made Popeye eggs and bacon and cream-cheese-stuffed-bacon-wrapped-jalepenos for munching on while we played Masterpeice. In our jammies.

You remember the art auction game Masterpiece? Many years ago I wanted to buy the game to use in our homeschool as a way to study art (games are always a much more fun way to learn things). That was about the time I learned that the game wasn't going to be made anymore, and they were not to be found anywhere.

I told this sad tale to my girlfriends one day. One of these friends had been fortunate to get the last game on the shelf at a short-lived educational store here in town. She was lucky.

Another friend, Nancy, tucked this away in her mind because she knew there was an old game at her parent's home.

And do you know what Nancy gave me for my next birthday?! Yes. She did! It was one of the best and most meaningful birthday gifts I'd ever been given.

And you see, Nancy, we are still using your game from your youth. And we're real careful not to get any cream cheese or bacon on any of the cards. We're taking good care of the game and it continues to be a family favorite on Sunday Night Game Night.

Just for the record: I lost in a big way. I played too cautiously last night.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

The Explanation

Years ago I decided to take a high moral road which did not include any type of video game things, no Nintendo or whatever the newest thing was called (I actually can't think of what they are all called now). I didn't see any benefit to them. They ate up time. They ate up brains. They ate up social interaction. Not gonna do it. Nope.

My sons played these games at friend's houses, and I was okay with that because that was a limited experience. But I didn't want to have any of that in MY house. We had books to read! We had board games to play! We had mountains to discover! You get this? Was this wrong? Was it right? I don't know.

Well, sometime last Fall I discovered The Pioneer Woman's blog and spent a little time browsing around on some of her old posts. I read a REALLY funny post about her attitude towards video games and what happened to her family and it cracked me up. I showed it to Doug because it was funny.

That was all it took. I guess Doug thought I was saying something like: "I guess we should go ahead and get a game system." I wasn't saying that, but you know how men are. They can find the littlest loophole and make it work. (I don't really know if that is true, I just needed to say that to fit my purposes.)

So it seems that one of the companies Doug does business with had an incentive for the new year, something to do with "if you pre-pay for a certain amount of supplies we'll GIVE you a Wii system and a game." And Doug, in his logical way thought, "I will NEED to buy these supplies anyway, and Shauna sort of said that maybe we ought to get a Wii because The Pioneer Woman did, so I may as well do this!"

I never did.

But he went ahead and did.

Doug presenting the Wii at the office after work

And that is how we have become the owners of a game system. Which I never thought we would do.

And that explains the previous post to my sons. When they get around to reading this blog and find out about the Wii, they are going to be in a mild state of dis-belief. We haven't told them about it. We're just going to wait until they discover it themselves. And if they are all able to co-ordinate their schedules and all come home together for a weekend, we'll make home-made pizza and gather together in the family room and play Wii together.

Funny how the name sounds like "we", as in "We are all together and isn't it lovely?". Kinda makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.