The Backyard Cornhole Championship

It started as a joke. In August, my brother-in-law and I argued about who was better at cornhole, the game where you toss beanbags at a board with a hole in it. By October, it had become the First Annual Family Cornhole Championship, with a bracket, sixteen teams and a trophy made from a spray-painted bowling pin.

My mother-in-law, who'd never played, signed up with my nine-year-old niece. They called themselves the Bag Ladies. Everyone laughed. Nobody was laughing in the semifinals, when my mother-in-law threw four bags in a row through the hole and celebrated by doing the twist.

My partner and I lost to them in the final, 21 to 18. My brother-in-law didn't even make it out of the first round. I've decided that means I won our original argument.

The Bag Ladies took a victory lap around the yard holding the bowling pin. My niece had it engraved. It's on my mother-in-law's mantel, next to her wedding photo.