The First of Many Christmas Parties

Just like at home, they REALLY get into Christmas here, and every group, activity or interest we have has a Christmas party to celebrate. In the lead up to Christmas we have 5 parties and a concert to go to, with all the food, presents and exhaustion fun that goes with them.

To kick things off, last night was the Christmas meeting/party for my expat group. And I was *lucky* enough to be the host. We meet once a month to get together, plan Cooking Classes, Coffee Mornings and parties for the various holidays throughout the year (like the Trunk or Treat), take collections for a few local charities we are involved in and have a meal and a gossip with friends.

I had a varied combination of women in my living room last night, as you tend to get with expat groups. We don’t necessarily have that much in common, except for living in Mexico and speaking in English, but it’s enough to ensure a fun night. I cooked way too much food (as I always do), but the upside is that now we have enough leftovers to feed us for a week, and I got to have 2 slabs slivers of different types of cake for lunch today! This year I volunteered (foolishly?) to be Vice President of the group, which has turned out to involve a lot of emailing and phoning people. It culminates in a frenzy of printing calendars, phone lists and newsletters every month, but it also means I’ve gotten to know people a lot better.

This group has been going for about 30 years and they have quite a few traditions for the Christmas meeting. We raffled Noche Buenas - Poinsettias (did you know they are only native to Mexico?), had another cookie exchange, and in a variation on Secret Santa we had a gift exchange, where we each brought a present and played a little game in order to distribute them. It was a bit daggy, but I am not afraid to embrace my inner dag.

And we sang Christmas carols! Which was at times painful, and at times hilarious. It all ended with everyone singing and dancing round the living room to this song:

There wasn’t even any alcohol involved. Bizarre.