Tis the season to deck the halls with boughs of holly (we did that), troll the ancient Yuletide Carol (we've done that), strike the harp and join the chorus ( we've all be playing Christmas tunes on the piano)....and to catch the cold virus.  What, you're not familiar with that verse in "Deck the Halls?"  That's an original verse we made up, because I can't remember the last holiday season we've had where all of us has been healthy. Hmmmmm, it must have been in those days of yore...before children, God bless them!  lol  

     And here I thought we were doing so well, exercising daily, eating healthy, drinking fluids, keeping positive in the midst of uncertain times, but somehow those nasty cold viruses have a way of sneaking in.  My poor daughter was sick during Christmas but had excellent spiritis throughout, I was impressed.  But we finally all succombed to the nasty virus. So when everyone asks about our wonderful holidays, we aren't exactly in agreement.  lol  

     Yesterday, New Year's Eve arrived and the children were feeling better and anxious to get going on our annual game night hours early, even though their dad was at work.  Sure, I was happy to oblige, I had been looking forward to this fun time to get my mind off our uncertain future, and I was sort of hanging in there with the cold. 

     The youngest gets to choose the first game.  The winner writes their name in the lid next to the year.  It has been fun adding to this list each year and seeing who has won in years past.  In the beginning, I used to win most of the games. Now you know why I like this evening so much!  =)  However a couple of years ago my then 11 year old son won every game!  Of course he was ecstatic and I was chagrined.  I consoled myself by telling myself I must be a very good teacher.  lol  In reality though, he was born with a brilliant mind!  It has little to do with me!  Last year my husband won most of the games as I recall.  Before my son became so brilliant, my daughter won quite a few.  We never know how these nights will turn out!  

     My son picked the first game, Life.  Sure, let's get that one out of the way!  LOL  I do not like this game.  I always go to college and end up with the worst salary.  Hmmmm, isn't that true in the life of teachers anyway?  When I went to college all my friends told me I was too smart to be a teacher.  I should become a doctor or lawyer instead.  But I suppose I was a glutton for poverty.  I became a teacher and now homeschool.  I do lots of volunteer type stuff as a teacher now and my husband is aggressively suggesting ideas for me to make money at this! Perhaps I could teach Latin over the internet.  I don't think so.  I am learning Latin, even though I own a Latin curriculum yahoo group to help other homeschool moms.  Whenever they ask a question, they really stretch my brain, but it has always been for the best.  Well,  surprise, surprise, I won the game.  I started with the lowest salary, but had an opportunity to trade salary's.  So I switched my $20,000 for my son's $100,000.  He didn't mind, because he knows he will soon land on the same space (he always does) and would get it back.  Well don't you know he landed on that space before I even had a chance to earn a paycheck!  The sweet child took pity on me so he traded with his sister instead and took her $80,000 salary.  That is the only reason I won this game.  

     I picked my favorite game next, Scrabble!  This used to be the game I always won, but my kids are getting pretty good at this, so I suggested a challenge.  How about we use words specific to Colonial Williamsburg?  They now have a new feature, "The Word of the Day" and we could reference that for the game.  My kids said no way.  sigh  LOL  They referenced the dictionary the entire game, even during their turn.  Even though this is against the official rules, I'd rather they learn and play well and not get discouraged.  My daughter did a terrific job playing big words!  My son would find words in the dictionary that he wasn't quite sure of the meaning but played them anyway. lol  He was in the lead until the end, when I snuck in some additional letters to other words.  That gave him the idea to do the same.  I won this game.  I think the kids did a great job, because in the end we each had only 1-3 letters left.  

     During this game my husband came home feeling awful and went straight to bed for a nap.  By the time he awoke, this game was over and I got our festive snacks ready for dinner.  Tamales are festive around here so we enjoy them for Christmas Eve and New Years Eve.  We settled down to snacks and enjoyed an old movie, Bachelor Mother with Ginger Rogers and David Niven which takes place during New Years.  The kids begged to see this funny movie.

     Then I picked the Colonial Williamsburg game, because I knew it was one of my daughter's favorites.  My husband did play this game with us, though he didn't know how long he'd last.  The kids had more fun than ever with this game.  Thanks to our wonderful time with Revolutionary City, they got every question correct!  My son won!

     My son picked Blokus next.  I love this game because it's a thinking game.  But due to the colds, none of us were in top strategic form.  This wasn't our best layout of tiles.  Nevertheless, my son did the best and he won!

     By this time, my husband went to bed.  It was about 10pm and I really wanted to go to bed too.  I had had little sleep the last few nights and I was getting a headache to boot.  But the kids were eager to stay up until midnight, so I tried my best to hang on.  My son picked Yahtzee next, which I won.  I was surprised, because my daughter got 2-3 Yahtzees.  My head was hurting too much to double check her math, but she is better at quick adding than I am, especially when I have a cold and a headache.  At this point I was just letting the kids do whatever and I was following their lead.

     Unbelievably to my son, I picked Jenga next. I thought this could finish out the night and help me to stay awake and somewhat focused.  You have to strategically take out blocks and place them on top, without letting the tower fall.  We never got the tower to go as high as usual.  There were extremely aggressive architects this year.

     Finally, it was close to midnight.  We watched the celebrations in downtown San Antonio.  The Tower of America is the focal point, where the #9 rides up the elevator to the top and then 2009 appears with a fireworks show. We heard a few fireworks in our neighborhood, but it was the quietest New Years ever in the 9 years we've lived here.  Our first year here was the noisiest. Back then we were not yet part of the city limits and my husband was in Korea.  The kids and cat and I were terrified.  I think we were the only ones who did not pop fireworks.  It felt like WWIII.  That is what led to this tradition of playing games.  Fireworks would go off all night, the kids were scared, and we'd let them stay up, because it would only escalate once midnight arrived.  It's turned out to be a fun tradition, even during illness.  This particular New Years also seems to foreshadow the coming year.  We have no idea what the future holds, as my husband will soon retire and is currently job hunting.  Even though we aren't enthusiastic about our uncertain future, we are going into this with hope.