The Funniest, Simplest Game to Play Before Dinner

The boys are off school for winter break this week, so we’ve been spending a LOT of time together. Even during regular weeks, I have them 75% of the time in our custody agreement, so the three of us have developed lots of little rituals and goofy inside jokes.

(As I mentioned before, one thing that has surprised me about divorce is the all-or-nothingness of parenting. Before, with two parents in the house, I could keep working late if I needed to, or take an impromptu evening walk, but now, when I have the kids, I’m fully “on.” And then, when they’re with Alex, I have entire free days, which is weird/cool and still feels new to me — for example, I’ve seen so many funny plays, like this, this and this.)

So, this week, the boys and I went to dinner with our friend Grace, and while we waited for our food, we played the funniest simple game. As a group, you try to count to 20, and anyone can call out each number, but two people can’t say the number at the same time. So, for example, in our game, Toby said, “one,” and then we all looked around nervously until Anton called out, “two!” and then I quickly said, “three” before anyone else did, and then Grace and Anton said, “four” at the same time, and we had to start over. Make sense?

My friend Selena (left), who originally taught us the game

You end up dying laughing because it gets tense! We also tried playing with our eyes closed (I’m sure our table didn’t look weird at all), which somehow made it easier? I love these kinds of random games where you don’t need paper or cards, so you can play anytime.

Any other simple games you have up your sleeves? What other family rituals do you enjoy?

P.S. A funny question game to play with friends, 21 family board games that are actually fun, and do you hang photos of your friends at home?

(Top photo by Alpha Smoot from our home tour.)