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Queue Kenny Rodgers with the muppets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNnrTNFWcsg or “live on stage” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8o6Os0xQf8

One of the things we like to do, if there’s time, after supper is play a game. Recently, the game of choice is ‘Fairy Queen’ which is basically ‘Go Fish’ but with adorable water color cards of woodland creatures rather than using a regular, boring ol’ deck of cards your parents got on a flight back in the 1970s. The object, or the person who wins, is the one with the Fairy Queen herself. And, quite frankly, I dare Titania herself to look more queenly.

If you haven’t haven’t played any sort of game with children lately then you might need a refresher, unless, of course, you have friends that have a very hard time loosing. Or you might think back to those days at university when you played Pictionary in the dorm lobby and there was always that one team that won time and time again and it made everyone else mad and finally no one wanted to play anymore. These examples are a bit like playing with a six year old, but not quite. Nothing is exactly like actually rolling your sleeves up and getting down and dirty with a child to play a game that only one person can win.

As supper ends and dessert still lingers around Amelia’s mouth she asks if we can play ‘Fairy Queen’. The clock says that we have time before teeth need brushing and beds need to be slept in, so she gets the cards out, shuffles to the best of her small hands ability and deals the cards out. Now, if you know anything about children then you know that they like to have things come out to their benefit and you can imagine how the dealing of the cards went. I think you can even take a guess as to who ended up with the fairy queen card…hmmm. First two guesses don’t count. The three of us go through the motions of playing a round, but what’s this? Towards the end of the game, Grammy gets to pick a card from Amelia’s hand – alack a day! Say it isn’t so, say it isn’t so!! Amelia looses the favored and most prized card to Grammy! NOOOOOoooooo! And Grammy wins the first round. Bummer.

Now, Grammy, being a kind and loving and fair playing grammy, tells Amelia that she knew she had the fairy queen card because of that certain twinkle in her eye, that certain look she gets when she has the delightful card. Hmm, interesting notion that one might give the game away with a look. Round two begins with a shuffle and a dealing of cards done by yours truly and a mention that poker players sometimes wear sunglasses to keep the other players from seeing what they might give away with their eyes. Amelia quickly grabs my sunglasses and tells us that she needs the glasses to keep us from seeing that certain twinkle should she be so fortunate as to acquire the fairy queen card.

Now she’s ready! Now she thinks she can get the game won, if she could only find that fairy queen card. I know you’re in suspense – she won. Oh the thrill, the excitement!

We did get a third round played and I got to win. I say “got” because it did take a concerted effort on her part to let me pick the card from her hand that I wanted to pick which she had in a death grip. Again, first two guesses as to which card it was don’t count. Everyone got to win. However, my win ended in tears. This being a mum stuff is rough sometimes. It’s at a time like this that I realize how strong the desire to win is within me. It does feel good to win. It feels great! And here’s my poor sweet-pea crying because her Mum won. Sigh. No crowing, no gloating “I won, I won” – none of that. This is a time for Wendy not Peter. Peter would crow and not care that feelings were being hurt, but Wendy – but me. I stop to comfort the hurt because playing fair is tough when you love having the favorite card in your hands and you watch it slip away and cause someone else to win. Ah, the agony of defeat – Ah, the agony of a win.