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“You’re still losing,” Ivy said.
“This game brings out the worst in you,” Holly said to Ivy.
“It’s a little scary, actually,” Rhett said. “She’s like a little, blonde competitive devil.”
“Win or go home,” Ivy said, raising her eyebrows. “That’s my motto.”
“No, it isn’t,” Jack said, smiling. “You’re the nicest person in the room at all times.”
“Said by the man who loves me,” Ivy said, sitting on Jack’s lap and wrapping her arms around his neck.
Blake and Beck continued their perfect streak of getting absolutely nothing. They were having so much fun failing that it was quite entertaining.
Jack and Ivy remained our only real competition. Ivy drew a crescent moon over a sleeping stick figure, and Jack immediately guessed “Silent Night.”
When my turn came, I drew two crooked branches on top of a circle.
“Rudolph,” Grant said almost immediately.
“That’s it.” I threw down the marker like a mic drop.
Round after round, we kept rotating through the teams. Grant and I didn’t miss a single card. He recognized my snow globe from the first curve of the glass and my candy cane from the hook. I knew he was drawing Santa stuck in a chimney, but that one was a gimme because he was such a good drawer.
Jack and Ivy were almost as good, although they lost a point when Jack mistook Ivy’s polar bear for a white cat. Rhett and Holly earned no additional points, despite filing three formal protests. Blake and Beck renamed themselves “Team Participation.”
“We’re winning by having the most fun,” Blake said.
“That’s not how this works,” Ivy said.
“It is for us,” Beck said, touching Blake’s jean clad knee with his fingers for just a second. But I saw it.
By the end of eight rounds, Grant and I had eight points. Jack and Ivy had six. Rhett and Holly had one. Blake and Beck had zero, but claimed moral victory.
“Final round,” Ivy announced. “Three points. Christmas songs and movies only.”
“We’ve got this,” I said under my breath to Grant.
“For sure,” Grant said.
Blake and Beck went first. Beck drew two feet, several snowflakes and something Blake thought was either a castle or an overturned bathtub.
“Frozen podiatrist,” Blake guessed.
Beck, laughing, held up the card for us all to see.
Walking in a Winter Wonderland.
Next, Holly drew a house, a clock, and a stick figure walking toward the front door.
“Late mailman,” Rhett said.
She added a Christmas tree inside the house.
“Mailman delivering a tree?” Rhett asked.
She drew a heart over the stick figure.
“Mailman in love with homeowner,” Rhett said.
