The Hunt for Apples to Apples

I love our family....young and old. I love our fun times, I love our love for each other and I love our family gatherings. We are a game playing bunch....whenever we're together, the kids and adults start playing board games....they are fun games that can be played by a group of people. We usually play things like Pictionary, Toss Across or Outburst......and the action can get pretty rowdy with a group of people yelling out answers.

I was listening to the John Tesch radio show the other night and he was raving about a board game that he and his family really enjoy.....Apples to Apples . So, I thought it would be fun to buy it and we'd give it a try. I called Wal-Mart, usually my 1st choice to find things....no they didn't have it. Next were K-Mart, Shopko and Target...no success there either. I turned to my computer and googled Apples to Apples .....yippee, I'll find it at Toys R Us. So, I drove over to our local Toys R Us store.
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Well, that was was a lost cause....they didn't have it either....."just sold out the other day" Evidentally the John Tesch show is more popular than I had thought. Everyone who heard it decided to buy Apples to Apples......
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They did offer to call their other store (on the other side of town) and oh yes, they had two...no wait a minute, they just sold one. I asked them to put it on hold and I would drive to their store and buy it. "we can't hold anything this close to Christmas".....bummer!
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I broke the speed limit getting there ..... this was fast becoming an obsession with me....I HAD to have that game. I walked into the Toys R Us store and made a bee line to the board game section.....Success...they had ONE game left....at $26.99 you wouldn't think that they would be the hottest item in the store....but its good to know that somebody plays board games as opposed to video shoot-em-ups.
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After Christmas dinner, dishes in the dishwasher and perishable food put away, we opened the game and start reading the directions.

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Ok, you choose a player to be the first "judge". The judge deals seven red apple cards to each player, face down. The judge then picks a green apple card from the top of the stack, reads it out loud and the players choose a card from their hand that best describes the judge's card.

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Now this really sounds simple doesn't it.

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The judge draws a green apple card...."Woebegone" What in the heck kind of a word is that?

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I look at my seven red apple cards....Ragweed, Earwigs, Cold Pizza, Mud, Princess Di, The Statue of Liberty and George W. Bush. Nothing that even closely resembles "woebegone".

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Everyone HAS to play a card.....I am leaning towards George W. Bush, but decide on Cold Pizza. So I slide it over to the judge, face down. Each of the other players do the same thing. From the looks on their faces, their red apple cards weren't much better than mine.

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The judge then scrambles the cards so that he/she doesn't know who they came from, and one by one turns it over. "My First Kiss", "Stubbed Toes", "Midlife Crisis", "A Bad Haircut", "Pond Scum" and my offering "Cold Pizza".

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As each card is turned over...the players lobby for their particular card. "what could be worse than a first kiss that was a flop", "nothing is more dismal than a bad haircut", "A midlife crisis..no wonder you look so dejected", "cold pizza has got to the the most woebegoneist thing to have for breakfast".....

Lots of loud table talk goes on and finally the judge picks one......"A bad haircut" is the winner. What! why did you chose that! Actually, that is exactly what would be a "woebegone" situation to the judge...a woman. You have to remember to "play to the judge".

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The table talk gets louder and more intense. The "judgeship" passes to another judge who picks another green apple card and the whole process starts again.

Our players were between 11 and 70 years of age......the young ones think it's great to play games with their family and the older ones marvel at the fact that they can still remember how to play anything.

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If you don't already, make it a holiday event to play board games or any games with your kids or grandkids......they'll remember the fun long after the game is over.