To the extent there was a theme for this holiday season’s gifts, it was games.  New family games would mean less time spent playing solo on our iPhones, iPad or iPod Touch.  With that idea in mind, we shopped accordingly, seeking games that would please the girls and not make my husband or me crazy if we joined them in a round.

Our search led us to some very fun games that we’ve already played several times since Sunday.  Among them:  Qwirkle (a twist on dominoes), Pix Mix (identifying pictures that are piled on top of one another), Square Up (a wordless Boggle), Tiddlywinks (I thought this game was simple, but those Brits complicate everything – did you know there’s a Tiddlywinks Association in the UK?), Zip-It (crosswords on speed from the makers of Bananagrams) and two versions of “Just Dance” for the Wii (what a workout!).  Chloe also received For Sale, a game of real estate prospecting and auctioning.

While we can’t prevent the girls from continuing to play on their gadgets, they still crave our attention from time to time and now we have a bunch of new games to play as a family – and to argue over.  Fun, fun, fun.