Carrots for Christmas

Not like this:

Like this:

I want my kids to be motivated to finish their school work and do their chores.  But I don't want to pay them for every little thing, let them watch oodles of TV or play hours of video games in exchange.  So for Christmas I bought some carrots (in the form of board and card games) for my little donkeys. 

So far we've played these games: Loot, Sleeping Queens, Rat-A-Tat-Cat, Haba Animal Upon Animal Stacking Game, Wig Out!, and Too Many Monkeys.  All winners!  The only one that the kids were kind of meh about was Monza - by HABA.  My plan is to promise them 30 minutes of game time after each school day, when all chores are done.  (And some of the games will hone their math and reading skills - shhhh!)

So what are your favorite family games?  We have a few more new ones (thanks Grandpa Bill/Grandma Cindy and Grandma Jean/Grandpa Warren!) to try, but we love hearing about new ones.