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Getting together with friends or family for dinner and a game can be great fun for young and old alike. For young adults it can also be a great way of cultivating new and nourishing old friendships.

Cranium

Always a favorite and, no doubt, always will be, Cranium is great fun for everyone. Laugh with others as players frantically sketch, sculpt, solve puzzles, act and hum tunes. Whether you enjoy acting, expressing artistic creativity, showing off your trivia expertise, this game is good wholesome fun for parties or simply bringing the family together for a good time. Named the 2001 toy of the year by the Toy Industry Association, Cranium now boasts a variety of boosters and variations on the original game. Sold new for $7.79 on Amazon.com.

Bethump'd With Words.

"Idiomatically speaking, does something that has a slim chance of succeeding have a lower, the same, or a better chance of succeeding as something that has a fat chance?"

"In the grandmother-gagging lingo of the 1990s, what did young street urchins mean when they turned on a bully and said, "Let's give him a swirly"?"

Those are two sample questions from an award-winning game that tests players' knowledge of words and the peculiarities of the English language. The game comes in three editions, Senior, Discovery and Voyager. Rated for ages 12 to adult, Voyager is the most comprehensive edition with six difficulty levels and 1200 questions.

The game covers more than 40 aspects of everyday words such as acronyms, eponyms, euphemisms, grammar, idioms, homographs, homophones, homonyms, onomatopoetic words, slang and much much more. New and used from $19.95 on Amazon.com.

Age Of Empires III Age Of Discovery

Many have already played Age Of Empires as a computer game, and although there are many differences from the video game, the overall concept is pretty much the same. Gather resources and build structures to develop your economic infrastructure. Explore the world, claim new lands, or battle to take land from others, and build your empire!

The theme centers around the 15th century as European explorers are discovering new lands. Columbus has discovered the new world, and this opens up opportunity for England, France, Spain, Portugal and Holland to go and stake their claim. The rules are a bit more complex than the previous games, but nothing too serious. $51.50 at Amazon.com

Any one of these games will provide hours of fun and laughter for all. If family is going to be playing, all the better! I've always felt that playing games together can build good family relationships. It has for mine. I hope it does for yours as well!

Learn more about this author, David A. Goodwin.
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