Mom, Amy, and I love to play card games. Dad, OTOH, was raised by militant card players and thus hates all forms of games and competitions. (Oddly enough, his sister, Becky, loves card games as much as the three of us do.) However, when we were kids and would go on vacation, the four of us would play euchre. The only card game that dad can even barely stand to play. Mom always refused to be his partner because he does things like trump his partner’s ace and call it on a Jack and a 9. So I’ve always been his partner.

Well, after years of this, and after years of playing Stick the Dealer (which my family had never heard of until tonight), I’ve gotten a little bolder with my plays. And tonight mom convinced dad that we could play another game of euchre. So dad and I sat across from each other and KICKED ASS! There was even a time when dad was actually enjoying the game cuz I’d call it on an ace and a nine and we’d still get our 3 tricks. He even was once dealt a loner, but played it out normally cuz he doesn’t like to play alone and prefers to socialize.

He was happy, however, when Rachel called toward the end of the game, which meant that we’d probably not be playing a second game. So after our 10:6 win, Amy called Rachel back for an hour’s phone call and dad and I watched Monster Garage.

All in all, a lovely evening.

Oh, and did I say we KICKED ASS at euchre?

(As an aside, I’ve since found I prefer bid euchre to regular euchre, which is what my family plays. On Friday, our last day of school before Christmas break, that’s all I did was play euchre. Had the most impressive loss of my euchre-playing with a -44 to 7. But I think we’d’ve caught up if we’d not run out of time!)