January 10 – “Piñata Incident”

I mentioned it yesterday.  Today I record it for posterity.  The "piñata incident."  The final game of Caleb's birthday party was the traditional piñata.  It was shaped like a bulldozer.  Very cute.  But looks can be deceiving.  The thing was impossible to break.  They started out with the little bitty guys – Caleb and the other tiny ones.  They used a little six inch long plastic baseball bat.  The highlight of that round was when Josh blindfolded Caleb and Christi chewed him out.  The next group began with Zakary, and the club morphed into a vacuum cleaner attachment.  Several of them made some direct hits, but the piñata was indestructible.  Josh even gave the college students a whack at it – with no blindfold – all to no avail.  Finally Josh declared that he, himself would take care of it.  It took up his vacuum cleaner attachment club and wailed on the unsuspecting piñata.  And nothing happened.  He took more careful aim.  And still he was foiled by the hanging tractor.  With a huge grunt, he was able to dislodge the scraper on the front.  But alas, that was just an attachment.  The candy remained hidden within.  The picture of frustration, Josh whispered to the college student now holding the piñata pole, "Just rip it open."   And so he did.  And so the children received their treats.  That was a lot of work for a pile of blow pops and stick-to-the-wall gummy-men.   This afternoon a group of us stayed after church and took down the Christmas decorations.  There was lots of help.  And it was lots of fun.  Next year we need to schedule this the first weekend of football playoffs when the Cowboys have played the night before.  Nobody was in a hurry to get home.   Along with the decorations we also had to set up for school.  The building is not quite ready yet.  Today we had to move up to the new building two extra copiers we had in the office area.  School enrollment is really picking up, so we needed more room.  The "Lowers" (That would everyone not in ninth grade yet and already out of kindergarten) are up to nine students, and will possibly have at least one more starting this week.  They moved into the office area for more space, and have already almost filled it up.  I knew the copiers were really heavy, but I had no idea they came apart into three pieces.  Again, we had plenty of help, so I was pushed aside when it came to carrying them up the stairs. They even threatened to tell Chris on me.  Gee, I was so disappointed. But my joints screamed out their thanks.   1 Corinthians 16:13-14 says, "Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. 14 Do everything in love."   Father, help me to be at least as strong in my faith as that piñata was in holding firm.  Amen.