Birthday Smack-down

I love a good pinata. They have so much to offer, particularly if you make them yourself. The planning phase allows the maker to explore latent violent tendencies. You ask yourself what would I like to hit with a stick? The construction phase features the wonderfully messy, gooey, sticky process of paper mache over some form of crude structure. Very tactile. Then there is the fun of deciding what to put in the piñata. It’s not just about candy anymore. Any number of oddities, from the delightful to the puzzling, may be included. The destruction of the piñata can be as satisfying as the creation. It affords the opportunity to hit something with a stick. In our society, outside of baseball, this behavior is generally discouraged. Some might also relish the mystery of what is inside the cavernous wrapper of rigid paper and paint. Then there is the competitive aspect of trying to make solid contact with the piñata, and the mad grab for the contents when it falls out.

So, when it came time for Khem and Emily’s join birthday party I didn’t make a piñata. I made two. How could I resist?

Here is Becca hitting the cat piñata with a canoe paddle. I made this one a bit too sturdy and the stick I brought fell apart before the piñata. I’ll note that that this wasn’t an attack on cats in general but rather the sinister feline that attacked and nearly killed my beloved chicken, Penny. Some of her real feathers were coming out if the figure’s mouth. Everyone wanted a whack at W. Here a party-goer dispenses with the stick and does a Karate Kid to the already-battered figure of our 43rd. I believe the piñata lost a leg from this blow.

Of course this birthday party featured a great deal more than a couple of piñata. Everyone had something to contribute. For example, Becca was on margarita duty all evening and Dawn provided the plush “girlfriend” pictured below as a gift to Khem. People enjoyed the oddly dismembered torso throughout the night.

"The Nettles", a fiddle and guitar combo, provided wonderful music to sing and dance to. After that, others stepped forward to share their vocal talent on karaoke. The sharing went on until the wee hours of the morning at which time Amanda provided a mountain of the decedent Scandinavian aebleskyvers for all to enjoy.