Our families travel together a lot. A few years ago we did a two week driving trip out west. Chicago --- Mount Rushmore ---- Yellowstone ----- Mt. Zion ----- Bryce Canyon ----- Vegas ----- Grand Canyon. It was the best trip of my life. Amazing sights are even better when seen with so many people you care about.
We have a few tried and true family traditions when we travel. We usually have a puzzle to work on while we sit around in the evening. The kids blaze through the assembly, never leaving any of the fun for us.
The one thing we do no matter where we travel is play the color game. Every person gets assigned a color, red, blue, orange, etc. The object of the game is to not say your color out loud. Once you do, you're out. The last person standing wins.
Elaborate schemes and plots are devised to get people to say their color. Even funnier is when somebody says their color with no prompting from anybody else. It's hard to constantly keep your guard up. Color words are more prevalent in day to day converstaion than you realize. You use them to describe things, to draw people's attention to something, they are used in figures of speech and idioms. The game can last for days. Even after you get knocked out you still try to get other people out.
We have developed some rules along the way. We used to let people pick their own colors we learned quickly that silver, gold, magenta and lilac are not uttered in common speech very often. Now we use only basic colors and we put them all in a hat. One thing that is heavily debated is whether you are out if you say your color and nobody in the game calls you on it, either because nobody was around or they didn't notice.
My color this time is red. I have to be careful to not say anything about red skin from sunburns, or traffic lights turning red or to say that I am red faced with embarrassment. My son already has made a few stabs at getting me to say red. Ruthless, this family is ruthless I tell you.
Magenta is too a color. It is my daughter's favorite color and is also part of the name she uses for an art education company she owned - Magenta-Doodle. She would have a very hard time not saying magenta.
ReplyDeleteBut it does sound like a very fun travel game. We may try it on our next trip.
I LOVE the color game!--I wanna play now! *smiles* I will somehow get my friends to play with me--I will! :)
ReplyDeleteSo just to clarify--the other players in the game know your color ahead of time, right? That sounds right--I'm just making sure.
Fun times with loved ones--there's nothing better than that! :)
Try not to discuss the last book you 'red'..Sorry..I just got off a 12 hour bus ride..Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!
ReplyDeleteOh..I like the new digs by the way. :)
Oooh. Does that Sling-tricky-thing count? It's very good.
ReplyDeleteWho invented this game? It's fantastic.
A colour game...will have to run this by the girls...we always have a game or three going and cheat like hell if we can get away with it..sounds like a good time was had
ReplyDeleteMom - for purposes of our game, magenta is not a color. For all other purposes, it is a fine color indeed. Purple seems to be the color to have this go around.
ReplyDeleteMHP - It is an awesome game and from reading your blog I think it is right up your family's alley. Everybody knows each others colors and some people even write them all down. It's OK to have people with the same color if you get a really big group. We did it one time at a week long family reunion, 43 people.
Sling - I am, unfortunately already out. My son tugged upon my Motherly heart strings to ask me if I thought he was getting a rash. I replied "No, it just looks a little red." That boy is evil.
Booda - My duaghter brought it home after going on a family trip with a friend of hers when she was very young.
MC - It's great fun and can last for days and days.