New Year's Eve 12/29/2011
 
I’ve been asked many times over to recommend a game the whole family can play.  With New Year’s Eve coming and the possibility of more family-type gatherings, I thought I’d give you a couple of suggestions.

One of my all-time favorite games is Respond!  We’ve taken this to our game nights many, many times and it’s always well received.  The game is recommended for ages 8 through adult and probably where it should stay.  Respond! requires spelling & reading  skills to play, so maaaaybe a mature 7 yr. old could join in with some help, but basically I’d stick with 8 & up.  The basic rules of the game go like this:  Each player is dealt 7 cards.  First player to get rid of all their cards is the winner.  Each card has a category printed on it … animal, city, country, flower, vegetable, etc.  First player throws a card and names something that would fit in that category.  So I could play a category card that says Transportation and say the word “truck.”  As soon as I say my word, I hit the timer which begins to tick off 20 seconds.  Next player in succession must throw one of their category cards, giving a word that BEGINS with the LAST letter of the word I said.  So after my play, you might throw a card that says Clothing and give the word “kilt.”  The trick is to do it within those 20 seconds.  The timer will sound off if you cannot come up with a card & word to play.  At that point, you add a card to your hand, reset the timer and play continues with the next player.  AND there’s a twist!  Some cards have a yellow border on them.  These yellow cards are called “Lightning cards” meaning this is a “lightning round” of sorts.  When a yellow card is played, ANYONE may play on that card (including you!)  Speed is the key here and this free-for-all continues until someone throws a white bordered card again and resets the timer.  Then play continues from that person in the normal progression.  The game is fast paced and packed with a lot of laughs!  
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To draw in some younger players, I like Doodle Dice.  (This game is one of the first games I pack for our family to play at the beach!)  Doodle Dice is aimed at ages 6 to adult.  There are 6 different colors of pattern cards in the deck that get progressively more difficult.  My suggestion to you is, if you have a 4/5 yr old who would like to play, merely remove all of the blue & purple cards from the deck.  That immediately makes the game easier.  To begin the game, place one of each color pattern card on the playing surface.  There’s a cup and 6 dice involved that each have a pattern piece.  Match the dice you’ve rolled to a pattern card and capture that card.  You have 3 rolls during your turn to accomplish that.  Object of the game is to capture one of each color card to win.  Whether you’ve matched a card or not on your turn, the next player MUST add a card to the playing field before they begin to roll the dice or they must forfeit their turn!  There’s a “steal” opportunity that comes into play towards the end of the game to add even more fun!  Wonderful game from our friends at Jax!

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