"We Got the Baby Jesus" party

As commented on in a previous post, we got a Baby Jesus figurine from a piece of Kings' (Rosca) Cake at a Three Kings party we went to in January.  If you get a Baby Jesus figurine, you're supposed to throw a party around Feb. 2nd.  So, tonight, that's what we did.

I'm really not comfortable throwing parties.  I feel like the opposite of Martha Stewart.  I've thrown more parties since my son turned a year old (3.5 years ago), than I threw during my whole life before that.

This was the first party I didn't stress about or even feel that much anxiety about.  It helped that we only invited three families, and they're all really down-to-earth.  Plus, the only thing I made was fruit salad and Mexican hot chocolate.

My husband and I had tamales at the Los Altos Fall Festival last year that were really, really delicious.  I kept their card and wondered when I would possibly ever need to drive all the way to San Jose to buy tamales.  This party was the perfect excuse.

I got pork tamales and corn tamales from Lucy's Tamales Factory.  It was really easy, you can even order online.  It's about $2 per tamale, which I didn't think was too bad.  (I don't know, is that expensive for a really good tamale?)

I googled "Mexican hot chocolate" and found a really simple recipe from Rachael Ray.  I used 1 cup of Whole Foods Organic semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1/3 cup of dark chocolate chunks.  It tasted quite good, if I don't say so myself.

We had seven kids there, and of course their favorite food was the Veggie Straws I bought from Costco.  My 4.5 year old son really liked the pork rinds I bought from our neighborhood grocery store.  I was surprised since he's not particularly adventurous with food.

For beer we had Dos Equis XX Ambar and Negra Modelo.  We probably didn't need to have Mexican beers, but my husband likes them anyway so it seemed appropriate.

I think the party was a big success.  Everyone had a good time, most of the food was eaten, people stayed later than they intended because they were enjoying themselves, and I think we strengthened our ties to each other a little.

I did learn two things in Spanish.  If you sneeze, you can say, "Perdón", and other people will say, "Salud" (health).  I wondered if you would say, "Con permiso" if you sneezed, but my friend said that's more if you're passing by someone who's in your way.

If you want to tell your son to turn off the light in the bathroom because he always, always leaves it on, you can say, "Apaga las luces".

I don't think I was really obligated to throw this party, but I'm very, very glad I did.  I got out of my comfort zone presenting food I haven't served before, inviting people I know but am not super, super close friends with (although I hope we will continue to get to know each other better), and continuing to ask questions about Spanish culture, food, and language.  The more I try to learn how to speak Spanish, the more I realize it's just a beginning to create new relationships, participate in new communities, and see the world from another perspective.