Game night

Every once in awhile, a group of us from work get together for "game night." I started this a little more than a year ago, knowing how much fun I have playing games when my family gets together -- and figuring there may be a few other competitive fun-seekers out there like me. I was right.

The hosts get to choose the date and time and, most importantly, the games. I thoroughly enjoyed introducing Things and Curses to them but I can't take credit for that. My nieces Caryn and Angie always introduce us to a fun new game (like those) when our family gets together.

Friday night we played at the Tappas. We intended to play Catchphrase then a game called Wise and Other Wise once all the little kids were sleeping. However, the excitement of Game Night kept the kids awake all night, too. As it turned out, we played Catchphrase for a few hours, which, if you've never tried it, is a fun game for all ages. Carter, who decided he was too big to play with the little kids, even joined in (and I appreciate everyone's patience with that!).

It reminded me, though, of when I was his age and how special it was if we got to be included when my parents had siblings over or other family for cards and games. We had our own version of Catchphrase back then. We called it Password. And it was based on a television series of the same name airing in the 1960s to mid-1970s.

In the television version, two teams — each consisting of one celebrity player and one contestant — competed. Celebrity contestants in those days were people like Richard Dawson, Hal Linden and Betty White (who you'd see on other shows like Hollywood Squares and Match Game. The password (the word to be conveyed) was given to one player on each team and was shown to the audience and to home viewers. Game play alternated between the two teams. On either team, the player who was given the password gave a one-word clue from which his/her partner attempted to guess the password. If the partner failed to guess the password in the allotted five-second time limit, or if an illegal clue was given (two or more words, a hyphenated word, or any part or form of the password), play passed to the opposing team.

In my mother's version of the game, we grabbed from a clear, plastic bag filled with words written on white paper strips. We could still follow the rules and time ourselves. We didn't need to pass along a computerized, handheld game to have fun -- but I must admit, hearing the Catchphrase "clock" tick faster and faster as it approaches the time limit is pretty entertaining. Knowing time is running out gets people laughing and tongue-tied quite a bit!

Nothing beats some good, clean fun with friends once in awhile! I highly recommend it. Do you have a favorite party game you'd recommend? Let me know. Maybe we'll give it a go next time (after we actually get to try Wise and Other Wise)!