Every 4th of July, my extended family gets together to celebrate. We live all across the western states, so this is the only time of year we all see each other. It is also my 8 year old nephew’s birthday.

Most of my family have seen the site. Some of them think I take it too seriously, but understand. This year, to prove I’m not all doom and gloom, my wife and I brought a pinata to the celebration.

We hung it form a tree without telling anyone, covered it with a pillow case so people couldn’t see what it was, then rounded them up. We also placed a baseball bat at the trunk of the tree. 

Of course people realized it was a pinata hanging from the tree and were stunned we would put one up. They were even more stunned when we removed the pillow case and revealed the pinata…It had a picture of my face on it! Then I went into a long spiel about anyone who ever got tired of listening to my pinata story had a chance to get back at me, we bought a bat, yada yada yada. 

My family was flabbergasted. 

Then I called up the birthday boy nephew and had him stand under it. Everyone was very quiet. 

I asked him if was ready to get the candy out. He enthusiastically said “Yes!”

I blindfolded him. Spun him around. Picked up the bat. Instead of handing it to him, I used it to pry loose a pull string that I’d taped out of view. I quickly handed the pull string to my nephew who pulled it with a “come and get it!”

Of course it was a pull string pinata. Joke was on my family, but they liked the candy.