Charades

I used to play Charades frequently. When I was in high school and college my friends and I would play it on a regular basis - but in a very competitive manner. (I once drew “Zbigniew Brzezinski” on my turn!) For many years it was a common activity for us to do as a family at holiday get-togethers. But somehow, over the last several years, as our holiday traditions evolved and locations changed, we just stopped playing. Then yesterday, while we were celebrating Christmas at Al and Carrie’s home, Carrie suggested we play Charades after dinner. Our side of the family immediately agreed. While some members of Al’s family had never played before and needed just a wee bit of persuasion. Soon we had all gathered around the tree in the living room, divided into teams which were approximately “boys against the girls” and were jotting down the books, movies, events, people, objects and animals we wanted the opposing team to act out. The slips of paper were folded and tossed into a red bowl for one team and a yellow colander for the other and we were off.

Goodness gracious, sakes alive it was a complete blast! Because the veterans were rusty and there were lots of newbies, we dispensed with timers. No one kept score and members of the opposing team would sometimes make suggestions to the person acting out the phrase (“Hey, try “sounds like” on the first word.”). Could we have laughed any harder? Could we have screamed and clapped any louder? No and no! Sometimes all we had to do was pantomime the category, gesture the number of words and give the first clue, when a teammate would call out the correct answer. Sometimes a person could be completely flummoxed by trying to communicate a simple thing like “stone wall” - a person like me perhaps! There were a few, well, let’s call them graphic concepts acted out, while still maintaining a PG rating! Although I did find myself explaining a couple of things to my 86 year old mother which, when I woke up Christmas morn’, I had not anticipated!

It was a terrific couple of hours of pure fun which left us hoarse and happy. I have a feeling we’ll be doing this again soon!