Holiday Games

In my family, games are always a hit. Being the non-competitive person I am, I don’t always love this fact, but I generally end up partaking anyway – especially during the holidays.
We do a gift exchange affectionately known as “Dirty Santa” where we each bring a $20 gift, draw numbers, and open or “steal.” The trick is that each gift can only be stolen twice – so there’s a strategy to if, when, and from who to steal any desired item.
This year – like most years – there were lots of games to be unwrapped. Board games, puzzles, single-player trinkets. Like I said, we like our games. I had my eye on a “Find It” as soon as my aunt opened it – a cylinder full of plastic beads with little items to find inside. My cousin had her eye on a 20-question game – turns out she was awful at it. And my mom wound up with a puzzle that she’ll leave at our vacation home.
Once the steals are over and the “tension” of the process has subsided, we all open our goodies and play with them together. It always seems to work out just fine in the end – even with my uber-competitive, relentless grandpa who has absolutely no problem stealing the most-coveted item from the most-deserving receiver.