A few years ago we bought our first kitchen table. We’d lived with hand me downs for years and decided it was finally time to pick something that fit us. We ended up with a long wooden table with lots of leaves. It’s wonderful for family meals, whether all four kids are around or not. It’s been fun to have big family meal events, when our large extended family comes to visit. And it’s been really fun to gather around it and play board games.
The only problem then, was that sometimes it’s hard to find a game that all the people gathered around the table can play. We can have ages that range from five to 83. There are plenty of finicky teens mixed in too. So it’s sometimes rare for us to find the perfect ‘everyone’ game.
We hit the jackpot a few years ago when we found Apples to Apples. At the time our youngest couldn’t even read and he managed to win more rounds than we’d like to admit. It became our go-to game when the kitchen chairs were full.
Now I’ve found a second go-to game, that has earned its place next to our worn out edition of Apples to Apples. It’s called Awkward Family Photos. Yes, the same Awkward Family Photos that you came to love through their hilarious website.
I remember the first time my son and I found the website. We spent two hours scrolling through page after page, laughing harder with each click. The rest of our family members had to keep reminding us to ‘keep it down’, as they were trying to watch TV in the next room.
I was thrilled to hear they had made one of our favorite funny websites into a board game and was anxious to try it out. We’ve been in the middle of a cross country move in the past few months and have not had any big family gatherings. I decided to stop waiting for a large party and two of my boys and I finally broke into it and tried it out.
The board is two sided, which doubles the opportunities for a unique game every time. The premise is much like Apples to Apples, where on every round, one player is the ‘judge’. The other players write down their answers and the judge picks the best one, and then guesses who wrote it.
The pictures are brought into play as each turn there is a different question to answer about the card that is drawn. They vary and invite many kinds of responses. Example: “On the cover of which magazine should this photo appear?” or “What words of encouragement can you offer the people in this picture?”
If your family has a decent sense of humor, this game will quickly get out of hand (in a good way). Even with just the three of us, my boys and I had many good laughs as we made our way around the board. We had so much fun, in fact, that I look forward to the Thanksgiving holiday, when our tiny condo will be filled with family and friends.
After the turkey is consumed and the pie covered in whipped cream, I’m bringing out the Awkward Family Photos board game. And afterwards, we just might take some awkward family photos of our own!
