Fire Starter

New Year's Eve at our place is always the same. It's probably the only hardcore tradition we have create since our marriage nearly three years ago ( I know it seems like longer because we have two kids, but really we're just newly weds still). We have a game night. Not just any game night. This game night is filled with heartbreak and disappointment because it's a night of high stakes. You'd better bring your A game on New Years Eve at our place. It all goes down like this. The day before we select a series of games/challenges. Each game/challenge is then assigned a prize. For example, this year the winner of Scrabble won a 50 dollar gift card to the mall. Other prizes included the opportunity to choose the dog breed when we get a dog, a night out with 30 bucks to spend, a pedicure/video game. We have a few games we always play, Scrabble, Boggle, Scattegories, Wii Ping Pong, and the USA Today crossword puzzle. This years challenges included "House of Cards" and "The Fire Starter".

House of Cards was tricky. This is where we each had to build a house of cards (self explanatory), the first person to build three levels wins. The cards we used were super, ultra or as the French would say "hyper" slick. Neither one of us built more than one level. However I ended up winning because my first level was far more sturdy than Tom's. His crumbled with every card stacked on top.

The Fire Starter Challenge was my idea. I'm a huge Survivor fan. Although I know I would never want to be on that show, I still love the "game". Tom always tells me I'd be the first one voted off the island. I don't think that's true, as I can be very polite and fun when I put my mind to it. For a million bucks I can be nice to anyone for a few weeks! The real reason I'd never go on the show is because I can't stand to not sleep in a bed, or be cold, or be uncomfortable in any way. I came home from girls camp every year. Part of the reason was the sleeping situation. Sleeping bags are not my cup of tea. Anyhow back to the "challenge". Each contestant (Tom and I) were given ten minutes in which we had to start a fire with only flint and some kindling. That's right folks, just a bit of dry leaves and sparks. I've never started a fire before in my life (that's what men are for, thank you very much), Tom claims he hasn't but also claims he received his "fire starting" badge for cub scouts so we know he had a leg up. The night was freezing, and windy. Of course we weren't dumb enough to attempt to start a fire in our living room so we had to go out onto the street. Tom made a good effort, got major sparkage, and nearly started a fire but the blasted wind kept blowing it out so he never got it going well enough to burn the string rigged up above the fire (okay, it was just paper rigged up, but the string sounded much more Survivorish). My turn, I got a few sparks, nothing amazing. I forfeited my turn because my hands had turned to ice and if I put on gloves I couldn't grip the flint and knife well. Tom was determined to start the fire so he brought the challenge inside, away from the wind. After a few minutes he did indeed get it started. He was pretty impressed with himself, and I felt good knowing that if we ever needed him to take care of us by building a fire, he could do it.