I love board games, and my family becomes very competitive even with a simple game like Monopoly!! I taught my children Monopoly on a young age and it did wonders for their math, from a very young age.
We have lots of fun together playing cards as well!!
My wife... she is normally pretty quiet and shy... but when she gets together with her own family to play board or card games... the whole family turns into scary screaming raving competitive lunatics!