B-I-N-G-O and bingo was my name-o!

What a great trip up north. A little cold but still a great trip. I have to say though, it's good to be home. As we ate our last meal with my family, my sister asked: "Aren't you coming back in a month? For Christmas?"

Oh yeah.. that's right. We ARE coming back! To which she responded: "Huh. So we've only got a month to recover from this visit. That's not much time."

Ouch. Nice one.

Anyway, so last I left you, we were at the park waiting for Malia to head dive into duck poop. Luckily she didn't. But she did come close to getting chased down by some geese. There was a stare down contest where both parties (baby and 3 geese) refused to budge: Malia not understanding why these "ducks" weren't running away when chased and the geese debating the merits of wasting their precious energy to chase down and peck the hell out of this little person. Luckily (for Malia as I would have laid down $20 on the geese) some kids came along with bread crumbs and the geese abandoned their potential victim in favor of food.

Wednesday we took Jarod (my 7 year old nephew) with us to the Kids Discovery Museum. They had a great time and left there soaking wet. I managed to convince the kids to hit all the other displays before doing the water works last. Good thinking on my part as Malia ending up drenched despite wearing a vinyl apron. We capped off the day by giving the kids their choice of where they wanted to eat, and it was unanimous: McDonald's. They requested a McDonald's with a playground and while I'm all for tiring them out for naps, I dreaded the playground. Malia's not big enough to go up unassisted but she's big enough to want to follow the boys. So that left me to wiggle my way up the tubes, around the tunnels and down the slide. Several times. I left good old McDonald's with the thought: On our Christmas trip back north, the kids don't get to pick the lunch place.

Thursday was of course Thanksgiving and it was a great day. We spent all morning cooking and the house smelled calorie-rich. We had about 30 people over and it was a noisy, crowded and confused affair. Ahhh, I miss family gatherings!

At the end of the meal, we always play Bingo. I know, it sounds strange but it's a family tradition. Since I don't usually have Thanksgiving at home (it's always spent with the Mai side) this was the first time in 5 years since I did Thanksgiving with my family. We also do Christmas bingo but it's not as big -- not as many aunts, uncles and cousins as we get with the Thanksgiving crowd. You pay $0.50 per game and the first 5 games you win door prizes. The last game is for the big pot of money. This year the pot was $69 so it's a nice pot. Just let me tell you: Truong and I never win. Never. We pay to play but we don't get anything out of it so I've sort of given up on hoping to win and just play to be a part of the festivities. This year though, Truong was determined to win: he put in $12. Or as he said it: he's "invested" $12. Sure whatever, sucker.

So we're all playing - there's about 15 of us playing so it got pretty... intense at times. I don't know how old people play bingo - it's so stressful. I was so tense waiting for my number to be called, knowing that my cousin Danny also needed only one or two more to win, knowing that we had $12 invested in these games. And it's completely a game of luck, no skill is involved so you're totally at the mercy of the ball cage. Like I said: it's a very stressful game.

The first winner was my niece Amelie (age 5). She got to pick from a pile of wrapped prizes. No one knew what the prizes were - so it was a crap shoot. Being 5, she of course picked the biggest box and upon the unwrapping, it was discovered that she won.... a toaster oven! It was hilarious. Somehow, Truong won the third game: a rice cooker. And I won two games: a hot air popcorn machine and another rice cooker. It was our lucky night. What the hell were we going to do with 2 rice cookers and a popcorn machine, who knows. All that matters is that we won.

Then the big game: the pot of money. Or in our house: the bowl of money. It was decided we were going to play black-out, where we have to get every single number blacked out to win. Being bingo novices, Truong and I strategized wrong: we blew a lot of games on trying to win the door prizes when we should have saved some for the money. Doesn't matter: I still had 6 games and Truong had 4 games to try to win. It was a long game since everyone had between 6-12 games to check off numbers. (Yes, we have a competitive family.) It came very close, with the request to call out UNO if you had only only number left. It came down to me and my sister.

And the winning call: B-3

I screamed out BINGO a split second before my sister. I clearly was the winner despite disgruntled parties demanding a re-count of my game card. I also had to talk down demands for arm-wrestling with my sister since we both won. Turns out she actually won before me but missed out on a number (it was called but she didn't check it off) so she kept on playing. But Truong's and my argument: you snooze, you lose! There was a lot of love that night at the table. After some more arguing, it was decided that I won and I came home with a wallet stuffed full of $1's, $5's and a couple of $10's.

I can see how gambling can become so addictive. One of these holidays I'm expecting the Gaming Authority to come knocking down our door.