Later that night, while some of the adults went off to put the kids to bed, Sam with them, Jack decided he needed to talk to Joyce. A question had been bugging him for a bit.

"Joyce, why did Sam have pink hair when she was a cadet?"

Joyce laughed. "Did she actually show you that picture?"

"Well....she didn't exactly show me... kinda found it...in her wallet...."

Joyce laughed again. "Well, a few decades ago, when Sam was 14 and I was 10, Sam was stuck babysitting me. I think she pulled an all-nighter the night before, because she fell asleep at the dinner table. She had been really bossy or done something to annoy me, because I decided to have red jello for dessert. I added cool-aid and red food coloring to make the Jello better. When she fell asleep, I spiked her hair with the jello. I swear I didn't know that the cool aid would dye her hair....But mom wouldn't let her dye it back for her cadet photos."

Jack laughed. It explained why Sam never liked red jello. As the rest of the adults came back, Joyce walked off. Jack joined Sam with the other adults around the table previously used for a stool. Joyce rejoined them, holding a box of scrabble and a deck of cards and a wicked grin.

"Sam, do you remember this tradition?"

Sam groaned and gave a resigned laugh. "How could I possibly forget?"

Jack looked around. "Am I just stupid or am I missing something here?"

"Both," started Sam, " My crazy family came up with this tradition many years ago."

"Care to enlighten me?"

"Scrabble and strip poker."

Jack stared. They must be joking. "Do I want to know how this tradition got started?'

Joyce answered. "About 15 years ago, before we had any kids, we got kind of drunk at Christmas. Then it became tradition."

"But you have kids now. What if they come out and see us?"

"That's what scrabbles for. By the time were done playing by our rules, the kids are fast asleep."

"Do I want to know your rules?"

"We play in teams. Sam can help you."

Jack was confused right off. They dealt off all the letters to everyone. Considering the fact they were playing in teams, there was a lot of letters. A couple would spell out a word, putting the letters facedown. The next couple would add a word to the upside down word already there. Once the teams were slowly running out of letters, the teams started calling cheat on the other teams. The accused team would turn up the tiles. If the did cheat, they had to pick up the previous 5 words. If they didn't cheat the accusing couple would pick up the 5 words. The game ended at 1, but there was no winner. Jack wished it could have kept going. It was now time for the strip poker.