Sorry: The Next Generation

I know that this makes two posts in a day, but I have a story to tell.

Growing up, one of my very favorite memories is of playing board games with my dad. My dad LOVED board games and we had a closet full of them. Every holiday and many Sunday afternoons the whole family would gather around the table, my mom would make yummy snacks and we'd play board games for hours.

Now that my dad has passed away, whenever I think of him I think of him sitting at the table playing board games. For a lot of years after he died, holidays were really hard for me because I so badly wanted to just go home, sit back down at the kitchen table and play board games with my dad. Holidays just didn't feel right without it.

A few years after my dad died, my mom got remarried, sold the house I grew up in and I felt like a lot of the reminders of my dad that were so special to me were gone. I couldn't sit in his favorite chair anymore, I couldn't sit in his spot at the kitchen table and play games on Sunday afternoon.

So one thing I rescued when my mom sold the house is our old Sorry board game. You know that game, I think everyone has played it. Our Sorry game is really old, I have no idea how long we've had it, but I remember it for most of my growing up years, so I'm guessing we bought it sometime in the 80's. I have fun memories of playing Sorry with my dad when I was young and I've hung on to that game for years.

The box is falling apart, the cards are yellowing a bit and one of the red pieces lost it's head many years ago, but that game is one of my most treasured possessions. It's a box full of home to me.

Once Josh started getting old enough we carried on the tradition of playing board games on holidays and when Josh was about six I pulled out the Sorry box and taught him to play. We've had a lot of fun times playing Sorry on holidays with him.

But for some reason it's been a while since we've played it. We've played games, just not that one.

So today the kids were running through the house, playing happily together and watching them have fun together reminded me of playing with my siblings growing up and that reminded me of Sorry. Matthew is five and the last time we played Sorry he wasn't really old enough to play, so I've never taught him.

So today I decided that it was a good day to get out the Sorry game and let Josh help me teach Matthew how to play. We got out the box, I gave the kids my five minute lecture on how special and important that game is to me and that if anyone loses the cards, breaks the pieces or tears the box, mommy is not going to happy, and we started playing.

Sorry is a pretty easy game to learn and Matthew picked it up quickly. We played it and giggled and had a good time.

At one point while we were playing I just had this moment where I looked at my kids, giggling and playing the game from my childhood and I felt my dad so strongly. I think somewhere my Dad is looking down on us and smiling. I'm sure he's happy to know that the great family tradition that he started is still going strong and making great memories for another generation of kids.

After a while I decided to leave the game to the kids and I came upstairs to get some things done, but the kids are still downstairs playing Sorry. Every few minutes I hear one of them laugh or yell "sorry!!" and it makes me smile. It sounds like home.