That Elizabeth!

Last week the Lapps' were here. It was wild and crazy and sooo much fun, but as usual, the time zoomed by. Over the course of the week, we played many games---Skipbo, Scrabble, Boggle, Racko, Dice Capades, and tons of card games---Fan Tan (taught to me by Grandma Preli when I was about 5) and Texas Hold 'em. Fan Tan is a great game for large groups and all ages. You see us below playing for pennies. When the teens are involved, we play for nickels. When Sandy and I started playing with just Victoria and Elizabeth, she made the comment that it would just be us women. Elizabeth piped up and said, "Well, technically, I'm not a woman!" You can really tell that she has older siblings---she talks like a little adult. She is fanatically in love with J.B. (as she refers to him)----Justin Beiber. While playing cards, one of his songs popped up on my iPod (yes, I love him too). It was his song "Never Say Never." E said, "this song is so overplayed." Totally cracked me up.

Then, after losing several hands, she said, "I'm seriously mad that I played this game. I don't have a big stash." She probably lost all of 15 cents.

See Victoria in the background? She's pretty quiet and such a sweet, responsible girl. Elizabeth teased her by saying, "Hey stranger, what are you doing in our game?" I laughed at the absurdity of that statement, which only encouraged her to continue---"get out of here stranger, hey stranger, etc."---Victoria started to get pretty mad which made E keep it up. Finally, Sandy told her to stop.

 When we were on our cruise, my friends and I came in 3rd for the all week trivia game. We were awarded 2nd place cheap medals---they didn't have any 3rd place ones. I put mine in my poker money container and have been somewhat obnoxious by wearing it when I play poker. I've come to think of it as my lucky medal as I "hosed" my sisters at the poker table a few weeks ago.

Of course, whenever we played anything for money, I put on my medal. One night, the whole family was playing Fan Tan in the dining room. I had just won 2 games in a row. I attributed it to my lucky medal. E was just staring at me. I said, "Elizabeth, would you like to rub my lucky medal?" She replied,
"Actually, I'd like to wear it." How could I refuse that serious little face! I handed it over. She immediately started rubbing it on her forehead---she didn't get that from me---saying, "give me luck, give  me luck..."

We're on the next hand---she's down to one card and it looks like she might win. About that time, Butch announced that he too had only one card. Elizabeth just smiled and looked pretty confident---after all, she hadn't taken her hand off that lucky medal. Butch said, "wait!" and got up from the table. A minute later, he returned with HIS lucky medal (he was on our team on the cruise, so he had one too). About that time, Elizabeth's little face dropped.

Here they are both rubbing their lucky medals. I felt so bad for her when Butch ended up winning. I told her she could keep my lucky medal. She has it in her poker purse now.

 Here you see mom's red poker purse---which I kept after disbursing her poker money. The tin is what I've used since the early '70's. As you can see, both are brimming with my winnings. I'm sure my brothers and sisters will be happy to relieve me of some of it when I visit in August.

Here's the rest of the family's poker money---various bags, cups and purses. The pink one is Elizabeth's.

One last thing about E. Butch was in the pool one afternoon and told her she could get in. She said, "well, did you ask my mom?" She's such a good little girl.

That's my Elizabeth report for today.