We were planning a family vacation. Blake and I were really looking forward to it. We were laughing and joking about things we thought would likely happen. I came up with this idea to make a bingo game out of the things we were laughing about. Over the next several months we collected a list of things that were likely to happen when we got so many family members together for several days in a row.
The more we thought about it, the more I loved the idea. Inevitably, there would be time waiting on others. The bingo game might help. Surely there would be small but predictable annoyances; we choose to laugh about them as part of the game instead of getting overly frustrated or embarrassed. There were things like "we will have a hard time choosing where to eat" and "a toilet will get clogged" and "a kid will try to get the grandparents to give them what they want when mom/dad says no." If we were to do this again, we could add "Becca will get grumpy if we don't feed her." We learned from experience on this trip that this is likely to happen again.
As the time for the vacation got closer, we edited our list to be certain that nothing was hurtful or offensive and to make sure everyone was included. I made several varieties of bingo cards so we wouldn't all get bingo at the same time. Bonnie helped us pick out stickers for markers and some treats for the first three winners.
Well, the vacation came and playing the game didn't work out like we had hoped, but not because it was a bad idea. I'm sharing it here because I still think it's a great idea! Feel free to borrow it and enjoy the laughter.
End note: Bonnie was so excited to play bingo. We spent one night playing games, and the next morning she told me "Mommy, I waited and waited and no one picked to play our bingo game." I hated to have to tell her that we weren't going to be playing the bingo game. We compromised by playing together and letting her share the treats we had picked out with everyone.
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