Best. Game. Ever. (And Troublesome Toy)

 

This Christmas season I am going to stop being an advertiser’s dream customer. This will be hard because I’ve spent 40 years grooming myself into the kind of customer who sees the commercial for the Air Swimmer Giant Flying Shark and buys it. Simply because the commercial makes it look so cool and fun. I bought not one but two of these damn things last year.

And then found out the hard way how not fun and not cool they are. What they are is unwieldy because they’re basically 6 foot long blimps that you direct through the house via remote control.

 

The Dynamic Duo directed their air swimmers onto the top of the precariously balanced Christmas tree where the blimps remained wedged until my fella climbed on a chair to extract them. Many times. Then the Dynamic Duo flew their blimps perilously close to my festive vases, resulting in their mother acquiring a festive, holiday eye twitch from the stress. Finally, the Dynamic Duo settled on the game of “buzz the dog” because apparently only one member of the family having an eye twitch wasn’t enough.

Then the blimps ran out of helium and have sat, deflated and sad, in the basement ever since. Because I’m the kind of gal who barely remembers to get milk at the grocery store, much less helium.

Nope. This Christmas I am not falling for it, and neither should you. Instead, I’m going to remember that our family’s favorite game in the past year is one that’s been around for 60 years. It doesn’t require so much as batteries, much less helium. It’s called Pit. It’s a card game, and it is awesome. Fast-paced, easy and fun for all generations. We have family members as young as 6 who play it and those as old as 70. And we all love it. If you need a good gift for a kiddo or family in your life, check out Pit. It’s $14, eye twitch not included.  (Click this link to learn more about Pit game, available on amazon.com for around $14.)