After possibly the worst 24 hours of my adult life, we reinstituted “family game night” tonight. It was a nice and necessary reprieve. I’m not going to elaborate too much, other than to say it was an immediate family problem brought on by something outside the family. Our health is fine, and we’re still employed, and so forth, but even though it would be therapeutic for me to blog about it, it’s just too personal to too many of us to post about. Happily, the ordeal is basically over…
After a pizza dinner, I asked the kids to play Monopoly with me. Not “regular” Monopoly, mind you, but the Indiana Jones version, with cool playing pieces, “Fortune” and “Glory” cards, and locations from the movies rather than the traditional properties. Well, ok, it is “regular” Monopoly, but it’s just dressed up differently.
I have a history with this game. Basically, I never lose – not even when I was a young boy. For whatever reason, I have a knack for deal making and for rolling the right numbers to beat my opponents. It got to the point where my sister and parents had taken to calling me “greedy gut” every time we played! Hey, the object is to bankrupt everybody else… Alas, if I was only that successful with real estate, deals, and money in real life!
We wheeled and dealed so all of us had a monopoly early on, and I let the kids hang around for an hour or so. I couldn’t resist putting the squeeze on them, though, as old habits die hard! First, I took out my daughter, then settled the mortgages with the bank for her properties, did some smart mortgaging of my own, and set up two additional monopolies to trap my son. He made it around the board about two more times, then it was over. Of course, I taunted them mercilessly as they helplessly tried to pay off their debts to me. Muwhaahahahahaha!!
Seriously, we had a good time, and it was nice to spend some quality time together. This ordeal made it easy for us to appreciate each other as a family even more. I love my wife and kids with all I have and all I am, as every Dad should…