This is it.
This is what Christmas is all about for me.
Well - my family do come first, of course, that goes without saying, and the meal with them on the 25th is always brilliant.
But come Boxing Day, the yearly tradition that has been going for the best part of 20 years, comes around once again: Monopoly at my best friend's parents house. The ritual is the same. Get there around midday, the board already prepped and ready to go (as seen here) and start drinking. We gather round the table, remember the highlights from the last years game, and then all gather around 1pm for another round of the best board game ever invented. FACT.
Well as they say in football, it was a game of two halves. Maybe even more halves than that :)
It started off well, buying property on the first round of the board, I managed to get 3 properties before getting back round to Go! again.
And I always find the game is pretty much dictated in the first 2 passes of everyone going round the board, given which property that land on and purchase. And for a while that was it - I was placed somewhere in the middle. I wouldn't go out first, but I wouldn't win. And with the help of my mate's brother-in-law John brokering quite a few interesting property deals between all of us (after he had pretty much decided from the start that he had lost) the game changed.
Next thing you know, I have the pink set of property, with hotels on each and I was raking it in.
Several whiskey and cokes (another tradition :), with only 3 players left, the countdown to 5pm was set. Tick-tock, tick-tock, money going here, rent being collected there, the time ran out, and I was declared winner. Me. I won. I WON!!!
ME!!! After all these years, and with some very comical attempts at being good (I understand the game completely but the rivalry sometimes dictates that you just fail miserably!), I finally had Lady Luck on my side.
We didn't even do a count of money and property, as it was an obvious win for me.
So I took home the trophy you see in the picture, and the £30 prize money.
Awesome!
I've spent the month waiting for Christmas and this is a big part of every Christmas for me. It may be the last for a while due to work commitments next year so it's good to get my name on the trophy!
Apologies if the story was too long and not worth the read, but it was fun re-living it! :)
