After Mom’s requisite annual pre-Easter Easter dinner, a Euchre game broke out. Okay, no news there. And not surprisingly, my young niece and nephew wanted in on the action. Now being that they are 2 and 3 years old respectively, they were quickly offered seats on laps to “help”. That was fine for Corrie, but Brian wanted his own hand dealt to him.

At this point, my 10-year old, who was not in the card game, kindly offered to play with Brian. But Brian was not going to be doing any Chutes & Ladders. He wanted to play cards – dammit. So Grandma helpfully suggested that Doug teach Brian how to play Slapjack, and gave them their own deck of cards. However, Doug, only half listening as usual, apparently did not quite get the suggestion straight.

For the next several minutes, he patiently explained to an inexplicably attentive 3-year old how he would get two cards which he wanted to add up to 21. How Aces were worth 1 or 11, and all about how to stay or be hit. Meanwhile, the Euchre game had nearly stopped so everyone could listen to Doug explain the finer points of Blackjack to Brian.

Eventually, and thankfully before my sister pulled something form giggling so hard, Grandma gently intervened with the boys and guided them to slapping jacks.

So what have we learned? Listening is a good skill. Gambling may be a more important one though.