Monday, December 22, 2008

¡Cumpleaños!

This year I wasn't able to make it back to Utah for Christmas and I didn't want to be family-less in Michigan, so I decided to split the difference and head to my sister Emily's house in Minnesota. One of the advantages of being with Emily around Christmas time is that you get to double up on the festivities since her birthday is on the 22nd (a.k.a. today). We had some grandiose birthday plans (Costco trip, Chuck E. Cheese dinner) that had to be scrapped when my nephew Braden came home sick from school (not fake-sick, it was throwing up-sick - trust me). So instead we just hung around the house all day, which is nice because I only get to see her and her family once every year or two.

When I was growing up, I always did the convenient birthday/Christmas gift cop-out, but this year I decided that I should get her genuine birthday-only present, since she was being nice enough to put me up for Christmas. After a great deal of soul-searching I decided to go with a piñata. You see, when I first mentioned that I might be coming for her birthday/Christmas, I asked if she had any big birthday plans, and she said she was thinking of making herself a paper-mâché piñata (there's a lot of accent marks in two words) because she's made a bunch for her kids and she decided that it's her party and she'll have a piñata if she wants to. But when I spoke with her just before leaving Ann Arbor, she said that she forgot all about it and never got around to it. But this is America and everyone should entitled to a birthday piñata, so there you go.

This couldn't quite make up for a lost trip to Chuck E. Cheese, but it was a reasonable facsimile:



When it broke open (at my own hands, I must admit) it was a pretty clean break, so Emily suggested that maybe we could reload and rechristen it as a Christmas Eve Piñata. ¡I'm down!

Happy birthday, Em! Love ya!

P.S. - Emily is doing this running series of Christmas memories on her blog, and she included this picture:
If you are trying to put a date on this picture, I think the flannel shirts are a pretty good place to start your investigation.

6 comments:

Elizabeth Downie said...

Those kids are so cute - I love their laughter! Adorable. Good job on all those accent marks by the way. :) Have a great Christmas!

Jess said...

Is that the one you got at Meijier? That is almost as cool as lady-bug Triceratops that I got for Jonathan's birthday. Merry Christmas! have fun in Minnesota.

Katherine said...

Oooh, that picture smells like teen spirit! Looks like you're having fun! We're looking forward to some Dr. Mario and Buffy when you get back!

Fernando Toledo said...

Hey man, how's life going? Just a quick visit in your blog to make sure things are fine for you and to wish you a Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year. My mom is always asking me for news about you. We hope you enjoy this year end and we wish you a wonderful 2009. Um grande abraço da sua família do Brasil. Família Toledo (Antonia, Fernando e Graziele)

Map Maker said...

Hum, flannel. 1996?

Jessica said...

Josh sent me a link to you blog- I don't know how he found it, but I've loved catching up on what you're doing. I decided to post on this entry instead of a more recent one because I loved hearing you laugh on the video of the pinata- you have the best, most infectious laugh and I miss hearing it!