"Aaaaaah," Stephanie, recent high school grad, exclaimed when another definition to an unknown word was read. Stephanie and her family were playing Balderdash, a board game of bluffing and trivia.
Things started off well, with most players making an effort to gain points by creating a dictionary-like definition. "It always ends before the right one is said," Cheryl, mother of five, complained.
The family enjoyed snacking on everything from carrots and snow peas to popcorn and Skittles. At one point, Nikki, Tiffani's sister, with hands full of treats, had a terrible run-in with the pantry door. "My butt's a lot bigger than I thought," she noticed.
Crystal, a redhead, dressed in partial pioneer garb, was suffering from a healing sunburn. A hunk of unidentified meat was strapped to her neck to soothe the burn. Her definitions fooled very few of the family during the evening.
Soon, as the definitions got a little more creative and outlandish, they were incorporated into the family's speech. Cheryl inquired as to the whereabouts of the family cat, to which Steve, anti-communist, replied, "he's snoaching his fig."*
But Stephanie was not to be outsmarted with false definitions. She could often be seen perusing through a polka-dotted notebook, declaring, "actually, I know that word because it's in my Writer's Notebook."
In the end, Steve was the winner of the board game. But the entire family has found the new expansion of their vocabulary a refreshing boost to the doldrums of everyday speech (often laden with too many commas). The family plans on playing Taboo with their extended family at the next family gathering.
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*The Hengen Family Balderdash Dictionary
chincherinchee [chin-chuh-rin-chee] -noun: the collection of chins in hopes of achieving happiness.
fig [fig] -noun: a fat date. So Friday night, I went out with this total fig.
komatik [koh-mat-ik] -unknown: the act of a tic in a coma.
piggin [pig-gin] -noun: a serious condition of bulimia wherein no purging occurs. Stephanie suffers from piggin.
snoach [snowch] -verb: stalking without a purpose. Go snoach someone else!
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