I was strolling down the aisle of a store a few weeks back, when I spotted a little blue box with the above-mentioned title.
The title, printed in large yellow letters, stopped me in my tracks! Maybe it was because I have been homeschooling my three children for the last ten years and I wanted to know what valuable information I had failed to teach my students.
Then I read the fine print: CRAZY MIX OF FUN FACTS, RANDOM TRIVIA, AND TOTALLY USELESS KNOWLEDGE.
Oh! How fun! I thought. “Where are we going?” the kids asked when I told them to get dressed for our Family Date Night. They stewed in their curiosity on the drive to our community yacht club.
Expecting a glorious sunset, we took a seat on the patio overlooking the bay and I fished the box from my purse.
“You guys really know how to party,” the waitress said when she delivered the three Shirley Temples with extra cherries and two spicy mango margaritas.
The woman sitting at the table beside us walked over about thirty minutes into our game. “What are you playing?”she asked, enthusiastically.
Markolee explained the game, then asked her the question we had been working on! “What ear did Vincent van Gogh cut off?”
“Mmmm…I have to think about that one,” she said.
Securing the answer, Markolee pulled the card to his chest and smiled mischievously. “No… it was his left ear,” he said laughingly when she gave the wrong answer.
“Thinking didn’t get me too far, did it,” she said, laughing at herself.
In their banter, generational, sexal, and racial gaps closed.
“This is pretty clever,” she said, gesturing her husband over to our table.
“Why don’t we milk pigs to make, for example, pig cheese?” my son asked.
We all laughed at the imagery then tried our best to answer. In the end, none of us got it, so Markolee read the answer: “Sow teats are small and hard to milk. The amount of milk is already relatively small.”
The seven of us laughed, hysterically, maybe at the imagery of someone (a) chasing a pig and (b) someone trying to milk said pig.
The sky dimmed and we turned our faces toward the sun. Fire-reds and burnt oranges moved slowly in the sky, casting its replica in the bay.
The small blue box was right about FUN Facts, RANDOM trivia, and some totally USELESS knowledge. But, things are often more than they seem. The box didn’t say: It would inspire a family date night, that we would play with Random Strangers, and watch the sun bid us farewell as it said hello in another part of the world.
I love connecting with you.
What games do you like to play with your family, and why?
For my readers, who are Italian, want to be Italian, or who are Italy-bound, here’s a fun trivia question for you: What product is stolen the most from supermarkets in Italy?
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I write for hours each day. I add, read, delete, and re-write until my brain stops and I’m staring at the computer screen. Then I go to bed, and at some point in the middle of the night I jump up, open my laptop and begin capturing the sentences I was trying to write the day before.
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What I’ve Been Doing:
- I finally finished Part 1 of my second manuscript…that is until my brain tells me to go back 🙂
- Two of my articles will appear in iMOM this fall. Be on the lookout for 3 Ways to Teach Your Children to be Compassionate in September and Connect With Your Spouse using Ally in October.
- At Local Author’s Night, I read a medley of my essays from my first book, I Am Home Within Myself. It was exciting to hear from audience members. Watch it on my youtube channel and leave a comment.
- I read Suliaman Addonia’s The Consequences of Love two years ago and followed him on Instagram. I jumped for joy when his other book Silence is My Mother Tongue arrived via Amazon — if you use these affiliate links I will get a small commission.
Kadine Christie
Cheers to Tiny Wonders and Mini Adventures
