B-A-N-A-N-A-S

Have you played Bananagrams? My MIL had 5 of her grandkids staying over Saturday night, so we picked it up at Target on our way home from The Neverending Shopping Trip* to play that night.


I had been talking up Bananagrams ever since I recommended it for a patient on my shift at the hospital gift shop. (I suggested it because I think the packaging is adorbs, and because the grandfather said no to all of my other suggestions, citing that his granddaughter only likes playing on her computer....kids these days. I hope she liked it.)

The reviews of it on Amazon are gushing, so I had high hopes. It was fun, but I didn't get to yell "BANANAS!" on a single game! And competition doesn't bring out the best in me - both of us want to be the winner, and there can only be one: The Hubs/our niece handily beat me/our nephew with his brainy med school jargon.


Once we started playing I remembered that it's like the Speed Scrabble tournaments my b-school girls and I would have in college, although I think the letter composition is a little different. But the banana's cute, no?

* We owed the three nieces a birthday shopping trip, which I thought would be a good alternative to the desire for money and gift cards...kids these days. Not the best idea:

1. Money would have been cheaper since we took them out to lunch beforehand and bought them smoothies at the mall. (Not that we minded; they're a bunch of cuties.)
2. I realize that I hate the mall. I haven't been to NorthPark in a while (a combination of not shopping much and not being able to afford half of the stores there), and it was so crowded, even with the first sunny, 60 degree day in a long time. I was annoyed by the teenagers blocking my way. I was curmudgeonly about the prices. I am so old.
3. Tweens don't like anything...kids these days. The girls used to love everything I so much as said I liked, but not anymore. Thank goodness my MIL in showed up, because J and I had taken them around to most of the stores and they found maybe one thing they kinda-sorta liked. (J was such a trouper.) She talked them all into getting some things when we went to Aeropostale for the second time, and my job was done but the migraine was only starting. Then we went to a department store and Target, where they got more clothes from their grandmother and used up some of their birthday gift cards.

I did feel like I was making them get something for the sake of getting it. I told them they could save the money for later instead, but I think they ended up being okay with what they got. I now look back at my birthdays and Christmases with a twinge of guilt. So much stuff! I think I would have rather been told I should pick out only one or two things my childhood heart really, really wanted (and/or needed), and that the rest would be saved for later or used on an experience.

Although I do think they enjoyed the experience of hanging out with their super-cool aunt and funny uncle, who cracked them up by trying on sunglasses and spritzing himself with cologne. Also, when we passed the AAC on our way to the mall, they brought up how cool it was when we took them there to see Disney on Ice for their birthday a few years ago.

I'm hoping that's what they remember later on. They probably won't remember that they picked out an orange hoodie (although they do have freakishly good memories), but maybe they'll remember that Uncle James liked a cologne called Mandarina Duck and we made quacking noises at him.