Apples to Apples

I have to tell you about the most fun I have had in a long time. When I went down to see my family on the 4th of July, I spent that Sunday evening at my son's house. We had dinner, spent some time in the garden...

looked at the sunflowers and marveled at how tall they grow.

and then while we ate strawberry shortcake for dessert, I was taught how to play a game called Apples to Apples.

The Beans showed me how to play and what to do. I guess I was a fast learner because I got the thumbs up from my oldest grandson.
I gave the camera to my daughter in law and she took these photos of our progress.

Little Bean needed some help with a few words that he didn't know... so we did some teamwork on the side. I would whisper in his ear what the word was  and sometimes what it meant.

This is a game of synonyms. A card is laid on the table and it might say "beautiful". The players all put one card in the middle of the table that they think comes the closest to being a synonym for "beautiful" But, because the cards were randomly given to you out of the deck, you don't always have a card that works and that's when it gets funny. You have to put a card down. Sometimes you have the perfect card, like "stunning" or "the universe" or "mothers"... but sometimes you only have " Mashed potatoes" or "motor oil" and that's all you have to work with. One designated person (that was me.) had to decide which came the closest to "beautiful" and who gets to keep the "beautiful" card. The person that ends up with the most cards wins the game.
Once in a while I would have two cards that were not even in the ball park as a synonym for the first card. That's when I had to decide which one was better than the other.
So they waited for me to read the choices...

.. which were sometimes so bizarre that I would have to repeat the original word and read them all the synonyms that they put on the table. I would read them out loud, trying not to laugh.
Then, we would all crack up, when the closest synonym to "snake" was not "slither", or even "scary", but "bologna sandwich".
We would all laugh ourselves silly... and then have a short round table discussion about what a "snake" sandwich would taste like.

Maybe you had to be there, but I haven't had this much fun in a long time. This is what grandkids do for you. They make you a kid again, if you don't let "being an adult" get in the way.
What a wonderful evening it was.