Hap hap hap, happy birthday!

Who would have thought that blindfolding a person, spinning them around and giving them a stick could be so entertaining? Well, the obvious answer is the Mexicans! Hooray for the pinata! I did a little research about pinatas, just trying to keep my readers informed, and while there are several theories about the origin of the pinata, it seems like the general consensus is that the pinata started with the Aztecs. They were part of a religious type of ritual, and instead of "papier mache", they used clay pots which would be decorated depending upon the god ad ceremony. Interesting huh? Why this discussion of pinatas you ask? Well, this past Monday was my Dad's birthday- can you believe it, 59!- and we had a pinata (trying to keep him young).

Isn't that amazing? He hit that thing about 4 times and it was dead. No one else got a chance to hit it. Can you say needed release of pent up aggression? Just kidding. But seriously. The next time you have a pinata you might want to have a mini refresher course on pinata etiquette. Even if it is your birthday you shouldn't hog the pinata. (Write that one down in your journal, you wouldn't want to offend anyone by forgetting something that important!)

Well, the rest of the birthday celebration went well. My mom and I had prepared a delicious dinner, some might call it gourmet, I prefer to call it delicious and leave it at that. But if you want to refer to my cooking as superb, decadent, etc. I won't stop you. Anyway, here is another picture, this one of the Parental unit, so precious! And yes, I realize that it looks like my father is about to karate chop my mama, but...actually that is pretty accurate. In our family instead of spanking the birthday-ee we have a birthday tradition that the birthday boy or girl gets to hit the other people. My dad chose a karate chop, which was unexpected but well received. (Ok, if you believed any of that for any length of time then a. you don't know me very well b. you are extremely gullible c. you have issues or d. all of the above).

Anyway, enough rambling about birthdays, pinatas, and hitting things/people. Just please remember the lesson about pinata etiquette because you don't want to be the one person at the party who everyone else mocks for not playing fairly.