2013-12-31 Old Years Night

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New Years Eve/Old Years night, was a very pleasant evening regardless of the weather. It has rained every day since December 26 and every one we speak to says that it is very unusual for this time of the year.

Rick and I had discussed going out to a nice restaurant New Years Eve. All restaurants were open, had live bands performing and were advertising great menus for the evening. Somehow though we realised that even if we paid the cover charge and had a nice meal, we would probably leave well before midnight.

Paul, one of our neighbours mentioned that his girlfriend, Fina, was coming to Ajijic and making a huge pile of tamales for New Years Eve. That did it; we were having a back yard party.

Fina brought not only the tamales; she also made a large pot of Mexican soup. Jorge and Alejandra brought a traditional Mexican hot chocolate, Mary Anne brought a pot of chili, Linda and Art made a huge fresh fruit salad, I made a large pot of Canadian style Spanish rice with pork. Paul brought dessert, one of his store bought cakes, which as usual, he claimed to have spent many hours making. This then encouraged Jorge to claim the Alejandra spent at least 5 hours stirring the hot chocolate.

Catary, who is one of our neighbours, couldn’t stay for our party. She is one of the owners of El Piano Rojo Night Club which was having a New Years Eve Disco Party but she brought Lynn Ruth Miller (Granny’s Gone Wild), who is a comedian performing at the club. She also brought a bag of wigs before running out to work. Both Ruth and the wigs set the tone of the party for the rest of the evening.

There was enough food to invite at least 20 more people and we will all be eating leftovers for many days. The music was mainly Mexican with a least three choruses of “Very Good, Very Good, Very Good” and one chorus of the Rum Family song which everyone joined in singing, even though there was only Tequila on the table.

Jorge in his wisdom left our Christmas tent up and even added the side panels for New Years Eve. I had suggested that the complex needs a Mexican clay chiminea for chilly evenings. I obviously mispronounced chiminea because he turned up with a portable electric heater. It didn’t provide quite the same ambiance as the fire pot but it did provide heat so we were all grateful.

We had a fun evening with lots of laughs, celebrating the old year’s night at about 10PM. We knew it was midnight somewhere in the world.

Lying in bed, I could hear a mariachi band playing down by the lake and fireworks being set off somewhere nearby as I fell asleep just before midnight.

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