Powerplay

Playing board games on Saturday night with the kids was the best tradition that we started as a family. As Marcus and Courtney got older, they lost interest in spending Saturday night with their parents and their little siblings. The teenagers thought they are just too cool for family time.  We’d try to play with our two youngest Nicols and Trixie but they felt like it was boring without their big brother and sister. There was just no winning. Before we knew it, every Saturday became every second, to once a month, to once in a blue moon.

The game of choice that weekend was Monopoly. We honestly missed our game nights with our kids. Mac and I decided to up the stakes a bit too. All the kids each wanted a different game for our Nintendo Switch.  If any of the kids won, their game of choice was the prize. For us parents, our prize was the kids had to do the dishes for a week. It was high stakes, the kids were all in. We almost threw in laundry in there but our white shirts turning pink or our sweaters shrinking down to doll size was a real risk.

We hunkered down after dinner with the game spread out on the dining table. Six nerds were ready to duke it out for prize of choice. As our pieces made their way around the board we could hear the wind start to howl. We knew game night was safe since neither Courtney or Marcus were keen on going out in windy weather. It would be a tragedy for Courtney if her hair got even a little messed up. Marcus wouldn’t risk one of his ball caps being swept up by the wind either.

It wasn’t long until we started to hear distant flashes of lightning. The lightning and thunder were occurring closer together getting brighter and louder with each crack. The entire family missed my victory dance when I landed on Free Parking with a big stack of money. Trixie jumped right into my lap with one particularly loud crack. This one sounded different.

We all scrambled to the window with Trixie clinging to one of my legs. Down the street we could see something smoking. It took a few minutes for the smoke to clear enough to see anything. Our neighbours’ tree down the street had been struck my lightning, causing the trunk to split right down the middle. As sirens started to blare throughout the city we watched the tree as if it was going to come to life. In a way it did, smoke still billowed out the charred black remains of the middle of the tree.

After awhile we went back to our game. Before we could even really settle in we heard *POP* *CRACK* and the power went out. We looked back outside, half the tree had fallen over taking down the powerline with it. The city was supposed to trim that tree back months ago to prevent this exact thing from happening.

We all ran around the house and searched for all the flashlights we could find with every intention of continuing the game. As I walked back to the dining room I had a fantastic idea. The clouds were clearing to reveal a bright full moon and a sky full of stars. We had been talking about going camping but we always had a reason not to go. I figured this was the perfect opportunity that we couldn’t pass up.

We traded Monopoly for a deck of cards. Everyone scrambled to get blankets, pillows and snacks. We gathered around our firepit in the backyard to warm up. It was a perfect night to camp out under the stars. Our oldest, Marcus, had just learned about astrology in science class and was excited to share his new found knowledge with his siblings.

Mac and I left the kids to explore the stars while we set up a campsite with a portable heater, tent and sleeping bags. The smallest of our kids quickly climbed in with me and Mac in the tent as soon as it was set up. The older kids competed to find as many constellations as possible.

Once Marcus and Courtney exhausted all the possibilities, they joined the rest of us inside the tent. That’s when the real fun began. With all the flashlights we could fit in the tent pointed to the top of the middle of the tent, we played round after round of crazy eights. After a while we lost track of who was winning.

It felt like ages that we played just for fun.

In the morning, the house was still dark. Still no power. We didn’t dare open the fridge, hoping the reserve power would keep our food cold until the power was back on. There wasn’t much else for breakfast except for campfire food. We decided that s'mores were going to be breakfast.

The kids thought this was the best idea in the world. The fire pit warmed us up as we toasted our marshmallows over the fire. The kids took turns making the s'mores for each other.

I couldn’t remember the last time the kids got along this well. Its as if the power outage was a blessing in disguise.

Usually 4 kids ranging from 5 to 16, getting them to get along was like asking the world to stop spinning. The kids even got the idea all on their own to figure out how to make coffee over the fire pit. With our supervision of course, we had hot coffee and hot chocolate to go with our s'mores breakfast. 

After breakfast the kids went around to the front of the house to checkout the tree. It was early enough that hydro hadn’t come around to start any repairs on the power line. From a safe distance the kids took photos of the trees scorch marks. They were so excited to see the destruction that mother nature can cause.

The kids brought their homework out to the backyard and finished it all without a fuss.   We even toasted hot dogs over the pit for lunch.  Marcus was struggling to figure out a topic for a science paper. The lightning struck tree was the perfect topic, he finished his paper in two hours. Courtney, and Nicols weren’t so lucky with their homework topics. Regardless they all worked in silence while basking in the sun. Even Trixie found some letter worksheets to practice on. This had never happened before.

In the day light the hubby and I chopped some wood we’ve been meaning to get rid of in the back yard to make a campfire circle around our fire pit. We haven’t sat in on of these since we were at summer camp as kids where we met. It was very nostalgic.

The next night the power still wasn’t restored so we managed a second night of camping. This time were better prepared. We pulled out the warmer blankets and a second tent. We sang along to camp songs probably annoying the heck out of the neighbours. 

Late Sunday evening the power finally came back on. It was like a switch was flicked inside of Marcus and Courtney. They couldn’t get back into the house fast enough. Mac and I slowly made our way back inside with Nicols and Trixie. We found the teenagers with their phones standing beside separate walls typing away while their phones charged.

Mac checked the food in the fridge while I went up to take a much needed shower. It didn’t take very long for our family to go back to normal.

It was the best weekend we had in a very long time. Our kids all got along, we spent time together as a family and had fun to boot. The lightning causing a power outage was probably the best thing that could have happened to the weekend.