A Year of Blogging: December 28, 2011

December 28 was 'Card Playing 'day. Playing cards is a good way to pass a cold winter day. My dad's side of the family are really into playing cards. In the basement at Grandma and Grandpa's house is a bar. Not the yuppie type of wet bar that you find in so many basements today. When you walk into Grandma & Grandpa's basement you think you've walked into the bar on the corner. There's a huge bar, which when I was a child always had a keg of Genesee (or Genny as everyone calls it) beer on tap. There was a big table that was used for playing poker. I think it was felt covered, but I could be wrong. I haven't been in that basement in easily 20 years. Big, colorful glass lights hung over your head. Each year at the Labor Day party, the table was full of Dad's cousins playing cards. They played poker, pinochle, and hoss (which we pronounced haas-ey). There were some people that you only saw when they came out to get food. You could go all day and not know they were at the party. Grandma and Grandpa loved to play cards. They played in tournaments at the Senior Citizens. They had friends over for card nights. From the family stories I've heard, Grandma's family loved playing cards too. Several of Dad's siblings play cards, and some of my cousins do. Dad goes to a Texas Hold-em game at least once a month. If there's a party or dinner with several Primeaus in attendance, you can bet at least four of them have a deck of cards between them. I have never really gotten into playing cards. As children we played Go Fish with my parents. I remember one babysitter taught us to play War. Somewhere along the way we learned to play Uno, and I still enjoy playing that. Usually I end up playing it with my parents. Erich isn't really into cards or games at all. The top part of the closet in the bear room is full of board games that we have never played. If you enjoy playing cards, now is a good time to have some friends over. Socialize and snack without feeling rushed. The bulk of the holidays are over, it's time to unwind.