Imagine you’re sitting around a table with your friends and family. Everyone is mad and yelling. The people at the table have never been more competitive. The UNO deck has a Draw Four on top. This is my dream night.

My family has never been a big game night family–we’re all so busy that we’ve never really made time for it. Whenever we’re all home for New Year’s Eve, we’ll play Clue or Monopoly, and whenever we’re at my grandparents’ house, we play card games after dinner at the insistence of my grandma.

Those are really the only times I’ve ever played games–until recently.

This summer, I worked at a children’s camp. Whenever we had free time, the campers wanted to play card games. I played more games of UNO this summer than I had ever played.

Playing games every day made me realize I love board and card games. I brought new games for the kids to learn and I, myself, learned a lot, too.

I watch YouTube whenever I need to take my mind off school, work and soccer, and even that hobby moved to games. I started watching other people play and learned lots of games I’d never played before.

Now that I’ve watched and played a plethora of games, here are my top four to watch/play (in no particular order).

First up: Scattergories. I got this one from my grandma. She loves Scattergories, and I’ve played it too many times to count. It is so fun and really makes you think.

Next is the classic UNO. You can’t go wrong with it–everyone knows and loves it. Adding house rules like stacking make it even more fun, too.

Flip 7 is a recent favorite of mine. I watched this one on YouTube before buying and playing it myself. It’s super easy to understand and forces players to take risks, which makes for a lot of fun antics at the table.

Finally, my family’s absolute favorite game to play: Skip-Bo. This game is a little difficult to learn at first, but it becomes super competitive once everyone learns it. You can block other players, press your luck and even (if someone’s getting a little too far ahead) make alliances.

Games bring everyone together, and I could honestly go on forever about why I love them. These are some of my favorites, and if you ever get a chance to play them, I hope you love them as much as I do.