For Christmas we were given the dice edition of the Phase 10 game and we love it! What a great way for the kids to practice mental addition! And yes I am mean I make them do it in their head , but I do remind them of the many awesome strategies they have learned in order to add them quickly and they really don't seem to mind because they enjoy the game so much.

Another game we bought for the family is Pit- any of you remember that commodity trading game with the wheat and barley cards and a bell from when you were a kid? Well they now have a new updated version of it and we absolutely love to play it, but we do it a tad bit different.  When we play it we set out spoons (one short of the amount of players) in the middle of the table and when someone gets all of their commodity they are to quietly grab one of the spoons.  The rest of the players make a mad grab for one of the spoons when it is noticed that one is missing.  Whoever is left without a spoon gets 50 points deducted from their score. This version of the game can get quite wild but it is so much fun!