Board Games, Card Games, Jigsaw Puzzles

I love board games, card games and jigsaw puzzles. My all-time favorite board game is SCRABBLE. As a young woman with a new baby, my neighbor was another young SAHM. Since our children were all of 'afternoon naptimes' ages, Norma and I began 'neighboring' during that time period and began what was to become a year-long, nearly daily, Scrabble marathon. Both of us loved words and word games and we became such experts - finding all those obscure 2-letter words to finish off the last of our tiles - that our husbands refused to play with us - they couldn't compete!

We started out with a simple Scrabble board and played so much that eventually wore the lettering off the tiles! The version I have today is a board with insets to hold the letter tiles in place and a rotating game board. Whether a simple or a fancy game board, the game Scrabble can't be beat for hours of fun and enjoyment.

The funniest Scrabble game time happened with another couple - friends of ours. My hubby, Bob, had the best play he'd ever found, a 7-letter word - BAZOOKA - high scoring letters indeed, and there were THREE, count 'em, 3, places on the board where he could have played it on a Triple WORD Score. You guessed it --- there were three other people who had turns before his next turn. Naturally (and unknowingly) each of us played on those Triple Word Score sites! Poor Bob - he was SO disappointed! He eventually played the word KAZOO on a double word score earning a respectable score of 36 points, but the 7-letter word (which gives you a bonus of 50 points for playing all your letters in one play) on a Triple Word Score would have netted him a Huge 156 points and won him the game!

Playing cards were found in China as early as the 9th Century, and it's popularity has continued to grow. I can't imagine not having a deck of cards around.

I've played cards all my life, from childhood hours of Canasta with my grandmother to teaching MY grandchildren "War" and "Uno". My parents learned some of the most unusual card games, having a "new" one to try every visit. My favorites are Pinochle and Kings-on-the-Corner. And the most fun card game ever I learned by the name of "Dwindle". It may be known by other names. You can't beat a deck of cards to give you or you-and-a-group hours of entertainment.

Solitaire is also called patience and refers to single-player card games involving a layout of cards with a goal of sorting them in some manner. Anyone who enjoys card games likes Solitaire. There are more variations than you can 'shake a stick at' and in today's computer age the standard Solitaire game on computer has really increased it's popularity and is irresistible when sitting in front of your computer. (My favorite version is 'Spider Solitaire)

My third favorite 'toy' entertainment is Jigsaw Puzzles of at least 500 pieces and up. We've literally spent 'hours' working on a puzzle.

About 4 years ago, after having our jigsaw puzzles packed away for years after a move, our interest was not only rekindled - it became a constant source of entertainment. We unpacked the puzzles we owned, set up a card table just for puzzles, and worked our way through all we had. We were enjoying it so much, that we then took all our puzzles to a local church thrift store, donated them, and bought another group for $1.00 to $3.00 each. Believe it or not, we had a jigsaw puzzle going without a pause for an entire year -- until another move came up and we had to pack them away. It might be about time to get them out again!

My brother and sister-in-law were also big jigsaw puzzle fans. One year on vacation we bought another copy of this pizza puzzle and took it with us on a visit to family.

Our family routine on visits was such that everyone (grandparents, parents, sibs & spouses) would meet up at my brother's house the day we arrived and we'd order pizzas for dinner. This particular visit, Bob & I announced we'd go pick up the pizza order.

At the pizza place we requested an extra, empty, pizza box, put the pizza puzzle inside, put it in the middle of the pile of 3 other 'real' pizzas in boxes, and took them back. My sister-in-law began to open up the boxes on the table for everyone to begin to serve themselves. When she got to the 'pizza puzzle' box, it looked so real that her first comment was " why is there cellophane on this pizza?" We all had a good laugh over that, and they enjoyed the gift of the pizza puzzle.

National Games and Puzzles Week is always held during Thanksgiving Week, which is the 3rd week in November here in America. In 2012, Games and Puzzles Week will last from November 18-24. The awareness week was designed to recognize the educational value of puzzles and games. But it can also be just plain fun. Games and puzzles are not just for kids. Adults are holding "game nights" as social activities in their homes - which are gaining in popularity.

Why not use this week as a fun way to spend time with your family by playing games and working jigsaw puzzles together!

So, dust off your board games.... get out your jigsaw puzzles... have some fun this week, and every week!

A website that provides a wonderful resource for parents and teachers for National Games and Puzzles week, and 'anytime', with coloring pages, crafts, ecards and lesson plans, can be found at the Crayola website

I was very honored and delighted to receive Lens-of-the-Day for this lens on January 5, 2010.

Games and Puzzles can be more than a toy, treat or fun activity. I'll bet you never thought of using one as a unique gift item - for yourself or to give as a gift - to celebrate a holiday or special event!

I hope you were entertained by this lens as much as the fun I had writing it. Thank you for visiting.