Monopoly at our House

Gretchen still has some birthday money left. It's actually a wonderful thing. She seems to be out of that "must spend money withing 24 hours" phase of her life. She has been researching and considering what she really wants. One of the things she decided on was Monopoly. She's a game player. An obsessive game player who struggles a bit with losing. Oh, I mean, she just loves games :-)

So...we went to Target on Saturday and bought Monopoly Here and Now. When we got home and opened the box, it was a time of much laughing and snickering for Gustav and I. The game pieces are: a Starbucks coffee, a Nike sneaker, McDonalds fries, a laptop, a cell phone, a Labradoodle (a Labradoodle??), a jet plane, and a Toyota Prius. Now, this was enough to have Gustav and I cracking up...what with his working at Toyota, our love of Starbucks, and just the silliness of the whole thing. I mean, I guess kids wouldn't even know what a thimble is any more! But the laughing continued as the game progressed.

First off, the monetary amounts are huge. Almost all of the transactions are in the millions. Poor Lillian was completely lost. That's a lot of zeros! We opted for the "fast game" mode, which only took 2 days. Yeah, we had to eat at a different table, so the monopoly game could remain undisturbed. We were NOT going to start over!!

There are no longer railroads to buy, but airports. Good 'ol LAX was there. You could also purchase Times Square and Fenway Park! At one point in the game, Gustav was a bit short on funds. Lillian gathered up a handful of bills and handed them to her Daddy. "What are these for?" G asks. "You need money," was Lillian's sweet reply. We both agreed she has no future in business.

Gretchen started tearing up the board, putting hotels on her properties. When Nicholas landed on one of her hotels, Gretchen, jumping up and down, shouted, "You owe me $9.5 million!!" Nicholas' deadpan reply: "What if I don't want to pay her?" A definite future in business! Or as a target of the IRS.

Gustav, still in the hole financially, finally passed GO and looked forward to his $2 million dollar salary, when he landed on the income tax square which required that he pay, well, $2 million dollars. "This is way too much like real life. It has stopped being fun," was his humorous retort.

Lillian then got a tax break for driving a hybrid. I was crying I was laughing so hard!

Needless to say, Gretchen won, once I counted all of her money, because as I stated before, that's a whole lot 'o zeros! All in all, I think Monopoly Here and Now was a great investment. We laughed, we cried, it was better than Cats. I highly recommend it!