Faces of Mexico

We met so many warm and wonderful people in Mexico. Here are a few.

These little girls were helping their mother at the Mercado 28 Market in Cancun. I fell in love with them!

This gentleman sat next to my friend, Jo, on the local bus and began to serenade us. First song he sang (without knowing where we were from): "Sweet Caroline", the Red Sox Anthem. Small World!

This little guy was being carried through the market by his Mom . . . in the traditional way.


Meet Victor. He and his two friends sang for us at lunch one day. Although we may have been their first "Gig" in quite a few years (we recruited them from a park bench) , they were fantastic!

Packing for Mexico

Hola!  I can't believe it's finally here . . . the long-awaited "Girls' Getaway" to Cancun, Mexico.

 

Except for one, "the girls" are all educators in our 50's and 60's who have been getting together for years as part of our infamous "Gourmet Group".

My carry on is stuffed with plastic leis to shower on the "girls" at Logan airport, flamingo straws and cocktail napkins for our Margaritas, and plenty of books and snacks for the flight.

A Mexican Dinner Party #1: Placecards and Prizes

Our infamous Gourmet group is getting together at our house this weekend for a belated Cinco de Mayo dinner. We're renaming it Vientecuatro (24th) de Mayo. Since we've been getting together for dinner for over thirty years, being a little late with a celebration is not a big deal for our group of old long-time friends.

I love the creative part of planning for "Gourmet". Our Mexican theme has kept me happily busy in the craft room this week. (Note the glass of wine in the middle of the desastre on my craft table!)

The placecards were simple to assemble from wine corks and decorated craft picks. I found lots of great ideas on Pinterest. One clever poster used real limes as the base for the picks instead of wine corks.

Here are the finished placecards. The Mexican flag picks can be found at about any party store and the tissue paper picks were at WalMart. I had to search a bit for the picks with the blank "flags" to write on...found them at Michael's.

I decided to translate everyone's names into Spanish for their placecards...hope they can find their seats!

 

 

On a recent visit to Belfast, Maine, we found a great store called Yo Mama's Home which, among lots of other fun things, had this Mexican party game on display. It's called La Loteria and is a Mexican version of Bingo. Needless to say, it came home with us.

Of  course there have to be prizes...los primios.  Most are actually made in Mexico thanks to the internet and Yo Mama's.

I wrapped the prizes in little "flag bags" to add to the excitement of playing la Loteria!

Everyone will go home with a goody bag too...a chillin' Margarita glass, some Hot Tamales, and a box of Tres Leches cake mix.

The Tres Leches could be a whole other blog post. The short version is that we fell in love with Tres Leches  (translates as Three Milks) cake at a Cuban restaurant in St. Augustine when we visited our friends, Anita and Fred, there in December.

photo courtesy of broowneyedbaker.com
 

Who knew that it actually is available in a mix in supermarkets the Southwest? Anita and Fred brought us this box back from Texas; I ordered six more boxes from Amazon, which now sells ethnic food in their "Pantry". Probably not as good as the real thing, but a fun Latin party favor.

 

Now that the placecards and favors are ready, it's time to start cleaning mi casa (my absolute least favorite part), setting the table, and preparing la comida...the food!

 

 

This post is linked to:

 Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home