Cheryl’s Top Eleven Family Games: What’s Your Favorite?

My family loves to play games when we all get together.  My Mom, Dad, sister and her family, brother and his family, and Jerry and the kids all get involved.  Some games are old, some new, some old with a new twist!

Cheryl's Top 11 Family Games:

11. Uno: I never really got into this one.  We've all played it though, again and again.  Especially when my brother's boys were young.  We have a Yankees version of this game!

10. Pick-Up Stix: Remember these?  We've got a package at home.  Always fun to goof around with these.  The rules are simple.  Don't move any of the sticks while you're trying to pick them up!

9. Deal or No Deal: We have the electronic game.  Really fun to play by yourself or with others.  It's easy to keep going to, since nothing is really at stake!

8. Would You Rather: This is a road trip game.  (Although, I think there is a board game version.)  We dream up ridiculous circumstances, like would you rather be chased by a wild hungry bear down a mountain or have to clean the lion cages at the zoo?  Everybody has to answer, then someone else thinks up a crazy question.  A great way to pass time in the car.

7. The A-B-C Game: We play this game on every road trip.  We pick a topic, like athletes and then run through the alphabet.  Everyone then would name an athlete whose first or last name begins with the letter.  Once everyone has one, we move on to the next letter.  Fun to pass the time, and it gets pretty funny when you get to the x, v, y or z!

6.  Upwards: We've had a lot of family fun with Upwards.  It's like Scrabble, but you not only build words across the board, you can also build up!  There's more creative genius involved when you can stack one letter on top of another to change a word and score big points!

5.  The Game of Life: We have a few versions of this old favorite.  My daughter loves this game.  She's always trying to have a family with lot of kids.  It's always a fun time!

4. Shut-the-Box: We first played Shut-the-Box with friends at a baseball party.  It's a dice game, complete with a box and numbers from one to nine.  The idea is to flip the numbers over with each roll of the dice.  So if you roll, a 7, you can flip over the 7 in the box or a 3 and a 4 or any combination that adds up to 7.  You stop rolling when you are not able to flip anymore numbers.  If you flip them all, you "Shut-the-Box."  This is really fun for adults and kids and really only takes moments to play.  You can play alone, or in a group with each player taking a turn at trying to "Shut-the-Box."

3.  Just Dance: We have "Just Dance 2" for the Wii.  If you've never played this game, you have to try it.  It's not your average video game.  There's music choice for the entire family and everyone moves!  Great exercise and lots of fun!

2.  Monopoly: We have many versions of the game from the original board game featuring "Saint James Place" and "Board Walk" to the "Cedar-Point-Opoly" version with all of the park's roller coasters.  There are also fantasy football and major league baseball  versions in our game closet.

1.  Skip-Bo: My sister, Linda, got us all hooked on this one a few years back while she was visiting from Georgia.  If you're not familiar with Skip-Bo, it's a card game you can play with or without the official board.  Lots of fun and easy to learn  Great for kids!

So what's your favorite family game?