reindeer games

this was the scene at take II, where joel had a show tonight. the band gets better and better every time i see them play, i'm so proud of them and also happy because they provide ample entertainment on and off the stage.

for example, while we were waiting for their set to begin, i played a game with dillon where he had to try to guess a pattern of words but i wouldn't tell him what the pattern was. our game went like this:

me: miller but not lite
him: bud but not lite (wrong!)
me: pool but not table
him: race but not car (wrong!)
me: green but not purple
him: table but not chair (wrong!)

after about 20 minutes of this he became enraged. i didn't intend to make him mad, but it was decidedly entertaining.
can you guess what the pattern is?

ps. reindeer but not games!