101 Ways for a Family to Have Fun

The Christmas I was thirteen and my sister seven and a half, our family received 101 games from Santa. Long before RTA (ready-to-assemble) furniture became popular, the games board, resembling a large octagonal tabletop, had four accompanying legs that, once attached to its underside, magically converted it into a games table. It came with game pieces for 101 different table games, and it seemed like it was just the ticket for elevating family night to a whole new level.

The first time we pulled up our dining chairs up to the game table, it was more like a comedy of errors than a fun family get-together. In no time at all, the tabletop was covered beneath a mound of game pieces pulled from out of the box all at once in an attempt to find the instruction booklet. Once the instructions were located, it was then a simple matter of choosing one of 101 games that everyone would enjoy participating in. By the time we had finally agreed upon a game listed in the booklet that none of us had heard of before, I was longing for a comfortably familiar game of Monopoly.

The next time we gathered around the games table to play, we picked one randomly by flipping open the booklet and having my sister point (with her eyes closed) to one on the page. It was fun and a little raucous; I don’t remember now the name of the game, but it involved throwing large plastic red, black, blue and white rings onto wood pegs. After a few months worth of family nights, we had tried about 40 of the 101 possible games. But no matter which ones we chose, one thing became acutely clear to me; I wasn’t particularly good at any of them. My sister, on the other hand won regularly.

After repeated trouncing by my sister, family 101 games nights didn’t seem as much fun. To survive family game night, I developed a game plan of my own. I would sidle my dining chair up to the table and play a few games before taking a break, supposedly for a glass of water, but when I returned, it was only to watch the action from behind my father’s shoulder. But my mother was too smart; when she caught on to what I was up to, I was “invited” to pick a new game from the many to choose from.

The goal was to play all of the 101 games and then keep playing our favorites. Even though we never made if through the entire list, (and in spite of not winning as often as I liked), the games table did give family fun night a whole new outlook, leaving my sister and I with some fond memories after all these years. Still, it’s probably not too late for a rematch.