Board game fun: Yeah, that was us, the family with the funny ...

I do not think of myself as a board/card game sort of person, though when someone in my family suggests we play, I admit I usually have fun.

Still?when one of those someones?suggested we pack a board game?for our three-day Spring Break getaway,?I think I gave them?a?look that suggested, really?

Because I couldn?t imagine anyone would want to play, given all the other activities?planned and the relatively short?nature of our trip. But I was overruled, and the box was packed in the car.

Where it sat until our last night away.? That evening,?when?we walked into the hotel after dinner, we discovered?the lobby quite full?.with families playing board games.

Is it game night? one of my kids asked. We weren?t sure. But the kids definitely wanted to settle at a lobby table and join the board game fun.?And,?of course, my 7-year-old insisted that our game be fetched from the car.

Which, I soon discovered,?was?Headbanz ? a?game that requires participants to wear blue plastic?headbands and then attach a card to the headband that reads??I am a spoon? or ?I am a goat? or ?I am a banana? or ?I am a ridiculous?person wearing a headband in a hotel lobby? (okay, not that). The player then asks questions, trying to figure out what they are (besides a public spectacle) before a timer runs out.

?It really is some silly?fun. And board game makers and advocates for family game nights really are onto something true and simple when they argue that playing games??is a wonderful way to pull together the members of your clan.

Because nothing quite bonds you to your loved ones as looking at each other with mashed-down, headband hair and hearing one among you shout, ?Am I a pig?!?

amber portwood cujo greg kelly karen handel hangout todd haley kareem abdul jabbar