This post is bringing up many wonderful memories. When I was a kid, our family played Yahtzee just about every night when we were on summer vacation (it was one of the few things that brought us together.) My sister and I would quietly stay up well after bedtime to have "Spit"(the card game) tournaments (it was also a great procrastination tool to keep us from homework--which also worked in college.) Our family also played Hearts, Spades, Sorry, Big Boggle (I can no longer find this version of Boggle) and Risk (there were always a lot of hurt feelings with this game.) When I was 16 I went on a bike trip across Maine with two older sisters--we brought a word dice game called Perquacky and played it in the camping area rest rooms (where there was light) at night (I think we only played if there was some sort of vanity shelf or large sink area. I hope we didn't sit on the floor.) Many of us got together this summer for vacation and we had fun with Texas Hold 'Em. My parents and a couple of my sisters really enjoy(ed) bridge. The games I've enjoyed playing with my kids are Scrabble, Cribbage (a favorite for my daughter and I when we are on vacation--we keep score with pencil and paper rather than a board), Sequence, Canasta, Chutes and Ladders, Life, Careers, Battle Ship, Rack-O and some lesser known games. Several of these come in small boxes and use special cards: Quiddler, Rat-a-tat-cat, Frog Juice, and for small kids Panda-momium and Hiss. We were/are particularly fond of Rat-a-tat cat and Frog Juice. Blink is also supposed to be very good. A game my teenage daughter and I got hooked on for a while is Fluxx--which is a card game with a special pack of cards. The rules of the game continually change depending on the card you play. It is great fun. We wore through a couple of decks. Mary 228: Harry's Hat game sounds like it would be lots of fun. Thanks for the chance to reminisce.

Check out geekandsundry.com under Tabletop games - lots and lots of board games! My faves to play with the grandkids were Qwirkle, Tsuro, & Ticket to Ride. Settlers of Cataan was also fun, but more mature than my 10-y-o grandchild, but mostly because he doesn't read English well. (He's Japanese.) If your son likes strategic games, there are many more out there - you just need to look!

Lyban, the kids I work with vary a lot in how much frustration tolerance they have and how much complexity they enjoy. Simple games like Candyland and Hi Ho Cherry-O are often popular, but because I cannot control how long they take to end, I don't often use them. My younger clients often enjoy matching/memory games like this one, which I use daily. For kids with short attention spans or low frustration tolerance, I use only half the pairs, to make it easier for them to succeed the first few times we play: I also use Jenga a lot with kids of all ages, if the child can tolerate the crashing sound when the tower falls; some kids cannot and that's what we work on but as a grandparent you're better off just playing for fun! "Spot It" is another of my most popular games, and they have a Junior version for younger kids: The regular game is a big hit with my clients all the way up to college age. Actually, that's true for almost all my games-- even surly teenagers love "little kid games". Hope this helps and sorry for the hijack and also that I don't know how to make smaller photos when I steal them from Amazon.

I like Cribbage and Pinochle - Bridge if there is a fourth. I don't know how to play Mexican Dominoes, even though I've spent quite a bit of time in Mexico visiting friends in Mexico City. We have some Canadian dice that came with the house - a set of five that have Ace through Nine, like cards, and so I guess you roll poker hands with them. A set of dominoes also came with the house! However I evidently do not have the correct dominoes to play Mexican Train: