"Check!" Anna announced.
"I get to play the winner!" Olaf called from across the room.
"Wait a minute, Olaf, the game isn't over yet," Kristoff protested.
He sat examining the board, trying not to be distracted by the children giggling at whatever Olaf was up to.
"Elsa's here!" Olaf shouted.
Anna and Kristoff looked up from their chess game, and the children ran over to the door to hug their aunt, chattering with questions that nobody could understand. Kristoff saw his move.
"Checkmate!" Kristoff declared while Anna was distracted.
"Oh!" she groaned, but she forgot a moment later as she went over to see her sister.
"What are we playing tonight?" Elsa asked her.
"I get to play Kristoff at chess!" Olaf declared.
"I thought we were going to play a game all together once Aunt Elsa got here!" Inga protested.
"Olaf, we did talk about this," Anna reminded him.
"Let's play blind man's buff!" Anton suggested.
"I think it's a little late at night for a game like that," Kristoff said. "Remember the last time we played that just before bedtime?"
"What about Aesop's Mission?" Fred asked.
"No," Inga replied, "Anton and Peder don't know how to spell, but they shout out letters, anyway."
"The Minister's Cat?" Fred suggested.
"Same problem!" his sister insisted.
"I know! I know!" Olaf interrupted.
"What is it Olaf?" Elsa asked him.
"Six Degrees of Francis Bacon!"
"What's that?" the adults asked in unison.
"You name a philosopher, and people have to find the shortest connection to the philosopher Francis Bacon!" Olaf explained.
"That sounds… fascinating, Olaf," Kristoff hemmed.
"It is!" Olaf said, cheerfully oblivious. "Let's say that Anna says Immanuel Kant, who studied Leibniz, who-"
"I don't know any philosophers," Fred whined.
"Perhaps another night, Olaf?" Anna suggested gently.
"Oh, fine, I just thought I'd shake things up a bit," the snowman replied.
The younger boys had begun a game of tiddlywinks in the corner, and Inga and Fred were eying the chessboard. Anna and Elsa were listening politely as Olaf quickly rattled off several more game suggestions.
"Consequences?" Olaf offered.
"Hey!" Fred interrupted, "if we can't play The Minister's Cat, we can't play Consequences, either."
"Well," Inga muttered, "Anton and Peder are playing their own game now."
The two younger boys heard their names.
"Let's play Snap Dragon!" Peder shouted.
"No games with fire, please," Kristoff sighed.
"Wait, what's this about games with fire?" Elsa asked.
Anna looked at Kristoff before she spoke. "Um, we tried playing Snap Dragon last month. The good news is that nothing got damaged."
"I won't ask about the bad news," Elsa smirked.
"Thank you," Kristoff and Anna replied together.
"So, nothing with writing or spelling, and no fire, and no running around…" Olaf summarized.
"Hunt the Thimble?" Inga asked.
"Oh! I love that game!" Olaf shouted.
"Olaf, don't you always win?" Anna laughed. "The rest of us are stuck crawling on our hands and knees looking under the furniture, and your hands can be under two couches at once."
Elsa nodded in agreement.
"What about Charades?" Kristoff offered.
"Charades sounds good," Anna and Elsa agreed.
"Who's first?" Olaf asked.