Piñata Day!!!

On Saturday we had our "1st Annual International Brimberry (+Holdren) Chili Cook-off". Don't ask me why it's "International", we had a good reason at the time but I can't think of it now. Anyways, 2008 kicked off the very first family chili cook-off.

When we first started planning the week, Saturday was going to be labeled simply "bbq at Michael and Lorelei's" but Cousin Jacob decided to write the label for the last day on the schedule and he deemed it "Piñata Day." Thus the reason for us getting the piñata when we were in Taylor eating the scrumptious barbecue (see prior post).

In the past, Poppa always made the chili during such barbecue's when in town visiting, but Uncle Mark had been going on and on about how his chili was better than Poppa's so we decided to have a chili cook-off between the 2. When Michael heard about this, he too wanted to participate. Thus the 1st Annual International Brimberry (+Holdren) Chili Cook-off was born.

Poppa and Michael took turns here making their chili and Uncle Mark made his at his home. How funny that Uncle Mark LOST his chili recipe and had to call Poppa to get a chili recipe and was going to tweak it. I guarantee you that Poppa won't be so accommodating next year!

Everyone else apart from the 3 contestants voted. The chili pots were numbered 1, 2 and 3. So each of us wrote down one of those numbers on a small piece of paper and in the hat they went. When all votes were counted, it turned out that Uncle Mark was the winner. Poppa and Michael tied for 2nd place. The irony of it all was that Uncle Mark's chili tasted just like Poppa's chili has always tasted but for some reason was "off" today. The general complaint of Michael's chili was that it was just too spicy! I think all the chili was really good although I gave Michael grief all day about him putting rice in his chili. (I, personally, don't like rice in my chili) I look forward to next year's 2nd Annual International Brimberry (+Holdren) Chili Cook-off!!!

I think everyone had a great time, especially the kids. There was Jacob (5), Charlie (3) and Sweet Pea (2 mos. shy of being 2). We teased Jacob the entire week leading up to Piñata Day that it was customary to put vegetables inside the piñata. He was quite pleased when he broke the piñata open and there was candy galore!

Here are some of the pictures from Piñata Day:



Jacob's running one direction, Sweet Pea's running the other - they had SO much fun!




a group hug!




Sweet Pea and Charlie - check out the mop of curls on both their heads!




playing hide-and-seek




they each took turns - Jacob was first




Charlie didn't quite grasp the "hat and blindfold" concept, so we let him have a go without either




...the same for Sweet Pea




CANDY!!!!


Poor Sweet Pea had such a traumatized look on her face when the horsie's body went flying off and the head remained on the string. Don't get me wrong, she was excited about the candy when she saw how excited Jacob and Charlie were, but I just don't think we'll be doing piñatas again anytime soon. Or, if we do, the piñata will have to be a star or a ball or some generic shape like that.

For days after that she kept asking about the horsie and would point up in the tree where we had it hanging from. Of course, it also didn't help that even though she dutifully collected her stash of candy, she couldn't really eat any. They were all hard and a choking hazard, so she harvested in vain. Then again, she didn't even realize you could eat them so I don't think she felt like she was missing out on anything. She did, however, get to enjoy Jessica's dessert. I cannot for the life of me think of what it was called but one pan was topped with cherries and the other was topped with cookie crumbles. Both were soooooo good. In fact, I polished off both of them within a couple of days after Piñata Day. Yummm-yummmm!

I'm ready for next year's event!!!