Sunday, October 18, 2009

Family, Games, Refreshments, and the Yankees=The best ever family night.







So listen, SS#1 and her Shusband told me about a new game that they played at their friend's house called TOSS UP. You can only order it online at patchproducts.com. It was very reasonable, I think I paid $6.99 or so plus s/h.
Sooo much fun, for all ages. It is based on stoplight colors: red means stop, yellow means you may proceed, green is a point earned. You throw the dice, one point for every green that shows, you then can either stop your turn and keep your points, or roll all the non-green dice to try for more points. If at anytime, your rolled dice colors do not contain a green-you lose all your points accumulated on that turn so far. As seen in the picture, all green are showing, I actually threw that-yes baby, of course I went on to lose that game, but hey, no one else in our group has done that magical roll! SGS said I am famous-love that kid!

Sounds like an easy game right? No brain numbing chores like in pinochle or hearts, but oh my, can it get exciting. When a player reaches 100 points, his turn ends usually (you can go on for more, put why?), then each remaining player gets one more turn to "beat the champ" (that was also the name of a local bowling show when I was a kid-flashback to more simple times, sorry). This game has become a ritual for us, SH, SS, SGS and Sme get it going and so many playing styles emerge. For instance last night I did not have one recorded score on the entire game! How is this possible you might ask, well, I was really pushing it after losing my few rounds of small points each time, when my score finally did get high, I kept pushing, wanted to get a big number, and then, BOOM, I threw only reds, and flush the toilet Tessie, my score went down to nothing for that round! SS was trying to hurry up the game so he could end it before the Buffalo Sabres game started (they lost 6-3), so he was pretty fast and furious, finally left before game ended with a score of 80. SH got 103, so the pressure was on for SGS to come through, yep, he managed to get 108 on one series of rolls without a red, and while talking non-stop through the game! SH was figuring out in his head the mathematical probability when I threw 3 reds out of three dice-he is such a brainiac.




I made a few pots of tea for us while we were playing: 2 bags of Morocco Orange Spice, one bag of India Spice to the pot (SB#1 taught me that you need to preheat the tea pot with very hot tap water before you make the tea-this keeps the tea warmer longer). Also, I made heart shaped shortbread cookies last week and saved them (as in hid from SS) so we could have them for Sweetest Day (Happy Belated Sweetest Day to you Sreader). SH bought me a heart-shaped shortbread dish for our anniversary this year (online at cookieartexchange.com), and the original shortbread idea came from fellow blogger Pattie Lockwood at morningramble@blogspot.com. She has a few other recipes that I made, very nice blogspot-try it you'll like it! ( are all my phrases from tv?????)
Anyway, back to the evening, fun, fun, we played and sipped and munched our cookie.
When the game was over, SGS said he wanted to also make us a special fall surprise, so he made: Pumpkin Fall Surprise.



I had some Pumpkin Bread (recipe taken from another fellow blogger Beth at bethsblog43812@blogspot.com . The original recipe was for cupcakes, I changed it to mini muffins with my favorite little muffin pan that makes 24 muffins at a pop, and I made another batch, this time making 2 loaf breads-bake at same temp, but for 45-50 mins. Then pop into freezer-well wrapped).
SGS loves to make many steps concoctions, so we softened chocolate chips, spread them on the bread,

nuked for 30 seconds, then sprinkled on Heath Bar chips and fall leaf sprinkles.

Bribed SS to come downstairs and watch Yankee game with us to eat it-food always works for him.

Thanks SGS for making a nice Fall Surprise for the family.

So, then the Yankees Game, did any of you stay awake for the entire 13 inning game? (I wish I would have made caffeine laden tea). SH said he was going to bed at 10:15 because he could not sit upright any longer, then at 11pm he really did, but not to sleep-oh no, the game was still going, so he watched in the bedroom, SS fell asleep in his room watching game, I finally made SGS go to bed when the 12th inning started-I can't tell you what time, you will call Child Welfare on me and he would never be able to stay overnight again! I trudged to bed, pulled covers up to stay warm and half-listened to the game fully intending to hear the rest. And the next thing I know, SH is kissing me goodnight and saying "The Yankees WON!" That was the end of a wonderful family night, thank you family. Thank you Yankees! Thank you spellcheck!

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