game night fun

We invited friends, Paul and Andrea and Carol and Madi over for dinner and cards during the break and I thought I'd posted this entry, but apparently, it's been sitting as a draft.  Oops.  It was one of the highlights of the holiday and we are excited to do it again!  I made a relish tray and my own version of the infamous "funeral sandwich" from Pinterest...the one with the Hawiaian Rolls, Ham and Swiss Cheese and the mustardy butter glaze on top.  I made my own rolls and rolled up chopped ham and shredded mozzerella then rolled them up like cinnamon rolls.  Oh my, so tasty!  And so buttery!

We had dinner and lots of good laughs over dinner, but, then we played games.  And then we really laughed!  Three rounds of our new all-time favorite card game, Fruit Salad, had us going.  It's crazy fun!  Here's the rules:  Remove the Rook cards from the deck and deal all cards.  Players organize their cards by color.  The first person goes and plays any card they want.  Each player then plays a card of the same color.  If they don't have a card of the same color they can play a card of another color, but if you have it, you MUST play the color that was lead. The person with the highest card of the color that was lead in wins this hand or "Takes the trick". They, then, begin the next round leading with a card in the color of their choice.   This continues until all cards in your hand are played.   When all cards in the hand are played, the first round ends and the second round begins. Each round is different, which makes the strategy change each round.

Round 1:  The person who takes the trick (wins each hand) gets 10 points for each trick that they win.

Round 2:  At the end of the round, each player gets 10 points for every RED card they won.

Round 3: 25 points for each player that collected a 14.

Round 4:The player who gets the black 13 gets 100 points.  Round ends as soon as the Black 13 is played.

Round 5 :  Play the round normally, but the person who takes the last trick (or hand) gets 100 points.

Round 6:  Play the round normally, but score as the round is played.  ALL rules from Rounds 1-5 are scored as you go.  

This is seriously the most fun card game we have ever played!  You have no clue who's going to win until the very last hand!  Good stuff!

Following Fruit Salad, we played a new game that we'd bought this season called "That's it!" .We got pretty rowdy playing.  This is a came where a person gives one clue off the card and everyone just calls out answers until someone gets it right.  At one point, Madi answered "Ewok", which was not the correct answer but Paul, being a huge Star Wars fan, just gave her the point.  From there on, Ewok was the correct answer.  Fun times!

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After this, we played Telestrations, which has to be THE funniest game EVER in the history of games.  Seriously, this game belongs on every game shelf in America... it's a laugh until you hurt game.  And I have to say that, in all honestly (and everyone knows how much I adore Carol), playing with Carol is a hundred times more funny because, quite frankly, she can't draw!  AT ALL!   She's got the most beautiful handwriting and is so talented at decorating, but she missed something in the drawing talents... and oh, my heck!  It makes for some serious laughter and shock when she's drawing!  She drew bacon and eggs that looked like two green beans and two very sad donuts.  We were all in shock.  The funniest thing was that I showed Liza a picture of it the next morning and she immediately said, "Bacon and eggs?"  Oh dear!  Too fun!  I love this picture because you can just see Madi's "sympathy for Carol's artwork!  Perfect mother/daughter expression!

We laughed a lot, told a lot of stories, did a lot of teasing, ate until we were all sick and then ate some more and I won't mention the amount of diet cokes that were consumed, but let's just say that it was an embarrassing amount.  Madi gave us "selfie" instructions...shes' the selfie queen!

Here's my attempt before Madi's instruction. a nostril selfie! ha!

Madi's got it down!

Here was my attempt after her tips.  I don't get it because I'm old, according to Zee!  harharhar  And Paul, may I say, is a ham!

 But, it's so much easier to just stand up and take a picture!

We talked all sorts of law (Paul's an attorney) and opinions of law and snowmobiling and food and games and family. Ironically, Paul was the attorney that handled Zaylee's adoption, which makes him even more a part of our family.  Andrea went to school with Liza.  At one point, I texted a picture of us to Liza and she wrote back immediately, a comment for every single one of us at the table.  Really, it was such a great night and we can't wait until the next time!  Too much fun!  Blessed with great friends!  Life is good!