Did you have Family Games Nights? With even colder temperatures ahead, February is an ideal time to spend some quality time together playing board games, cards, or putting together jigsaw puzzles. We could all benefit from having one night a week to unplug and connect.

When I was a kid, our family game night was usually a card game. My dad would impress us with his shuffling skills and my mom was the official scorekeeper. We played Rummy, Go Fish, Crazy Eights, Old Maid, Snap, and Poker.

It was loads of fun and being the youngest, I learned to lose gracefully, but sometimes I managed to win, and it would be my siblings’ turn to accept defeat. My parents insisted we always play by the rules and never let us be poor sports. Occasionally, we played Checkers, Bingo, or worked on a jigsaw puzzle.

My siblings and I often played games. My mom kept the games cupboard well stocked, so she wouldn’t have to listen to bored kids squabble. She saved old envelopes and scraps of paper for Tic Tac Toe or Hangman. Every Christmas there was at least one board game under the tree and marbles, jacks, dice, or a new deck of cards in our stockings. One year they bought us an inexpensive pinball machine and we’d have family tournaments.

During warm weather we played Badminton, Volleyball, Croquet, or Horseshoes. My dad played baseball in the Army, so occasionally, we’d have an impromptu game, but my mom was always afraid someone would break a window – that would have been a real budget buster.

Playing games as a family are some of my happiest childhood memories. When I had children of my own, we started family games nights. Our first games were Hi Ho Cherry-O, Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, UNO, and Yahtzee.

After my older sons started playing hockey, family game night was often limited to Christian and me. While he was physically able, we played cards, Scrabble, Guess Who, Checkers, or Risk, and put together jigsaw puzzles. He played video games with his friends and his brothers. Video games were never my thing, and I wasn’t good competition.

When he began to lose muscle strength, we switched to online games. He was a whiz at Rebus puzzles and Sporkle, an online trivia game. We spent many happy hours matching countries to their capitols, identifying their geographical locations on maps, matching songs to their decade, or answering questions about historical events. What I liked most about Sporkle is that we could work together on the quizzes. He found jigsaw puzzles online and made the transition to computer games when he could no longer hold a game controller.

These memories have helped me make it through the past year without him and my mom. Games will always have a special place in my life, and I look forward to family game nights with my grandson in the coming years.