Monday Memory #4: The World Championship

This is the last Sunday in December, but I've had a lot of fun writing all these memories, so maybe I'll have to write some others. For now, here's another memory from Christmastime.

Like a lot of families, we played a lot of games in our house. Monopoly marathons, all-day Risk tournaments, Duck Hunt on the Nintendo, you name it, we probably played it. But the game we played with more gusto and passion has to be Chinese Checkers. There's something about that perfect game board and brightly colored game pieces that brought out the competitive spirit in all of us. But we didn't just play to have fun, oh no, we played for the title of World Champion.

When us three kids were little, we played with Mom and Dad just as competitively as we do now. You would think that we would be allowed to win occasionally, but no, Dad never 'let' us win. If we won a game it was because we actually out-played him and won fair and square.

A lot of trash-talking goes on during these World Championship Chinese Checkers games. One person will block another's perfect move, someone will accuse another of plugging up the board and at least once, someone will be required to show how their across-the-board trek was actually perfectly legal and legit. Dirty looks will be exchanged and revenge will be plotted.

I believe my brother, Kasey, has the longest win streak in the family, but he wasn't in Oregon for Christmas this year, so he couldn't defend his title. Oh, in case you were wondering, I won this year, making me the World Champion. I look forward to defending my title at next year's gathering.