House of cards

So holiday time has been and gone and we had a house full of kids on the not so sunny North Shore.  The humble deck of cards, believe it or not, actually featured prominently in most of our holidays.  There are card games for all age ranges in the house, and at two bucks a pop from the two-dollar shop, its a winner!!


My youngest son is currently 'King' of Fish, Memory and Snap.  He has all his older siblings and his older cousins to play with.  And occasionally I will go a round or two with him.  Its pretty special really, you get to see the older, eldest kids letting him win, allowing a little bit of cheating.  And then you get to see the older, youngest kids who play and wont let him get away with any cheating at all.  All in the name of fun but always the rules of life at play.


The older youngest kids are into Last Card, Speed and Donkey.  Man.  Some pretty vicious encounters ensue!!  Cousin vs cousin, sister vs sister, sister vs brother.  Tense times.  Every now and then I get down on the floor and challenge someone to a game of speed.  There is not much that seperates me and the kids anymore!  I used to adjust my speed to allow them to win, but they are at the outer edge of this age group so they're pretty damn skilled now.  Its just sheer luck if I win a game these days!  Awesome to see their competitive spirits.


Last card is such an eternal game and I like to play the kids at this too.  They keep inventing new rules.  I know what the ten, the ace, the five and the two mean, but the king, the jack and the three are millenium kid rules I think.  I never know what they mean!!  Never count me out though, I have some tricks still, and I do emerge the winner every now and then.  My sister out of necessity has invented 'silent' Donkey.  I dont know how its played but I like the sound of silence aspect!


The eldest kids are stepping up to the pre-Adults table and are currently being schooled in President, and Black Lady (B*tch when its all adults playing!), by their parents/aunties/uncles.  We have a beginner and mid-skilled teens and pre-teens.  They are surprisingly holding their own.  There is a degree of coaching there but its no holds barred in terms of tactics and strategy!  The winners and losers shift regularly so its pretty interesting.  I am looking forward to the big games (well big in our household).  Euchre and 500.  Maybe this Christmas they'll get their first lessons.  That's when the real card playing begins, and a whole 'nother level of whanau becomes theirs to experience.  Playing against the real old schools.  All their training leads to that. Haha, call me old skool but back in the day, that's what kept our whanau4life connections strong!!