Happy Birthday To Me

Although it’s been over a month since the event, I wanted to post a few pictures of my birthday celebration. It was by far one of the best birthdays I’ve had. Lots of friends, family, great food, yummy drinks and PRESENTS! We decided on a Mexican theme, so we had Mexican decorations, Mexican food, Margaritas, and the staple of the Mexican party: a baseball bat for the piñata. Oh and alot of Mexican people (all legal). To make the ambiance more "Mexican", Manyee, Caroline, Christine, the Bullo's and the Coelho's brought along their various levels of Spanish conversation skills. My family LOVED that! Of course, the alcohol helped the Spanish on a few occasions.

GUESTS
The Caroline and her “boyfriend” Manyee arrived early to help with the setup and, for Caroline at least, to get a head start on the margaritas. Little did she know that her efforts were futile as Christine already had a master plan for drinking her under the table, where I think she ended up at one point. Most of my immediate family was there as was the deedee event regulars: Fred, Christine, Lily, Francesco, Caroline, Age, Shell, Manyee, Jackie, Nav and Jeff, Okey, and MJ.

My cousin’s wife told me she didn’t want to talk with my friends because “they went to UCLA”. HA. My friends are a lot of things: sarcastic, snarky, goofy..but intellectually snobby? I don’t think so. Ok, maybe Brian goes there once in while (“hey, so what do you think about…”) but otherwise we are a pretty normal bunch of folks in spite of our college experience. I think Christine enjoyed herself the most. The picture is of Christine trying to steal my boyfriend. Step off biatch! :)

DRINKS
We had margarita menus available to all the guests to help choose among the various drinks we had picked for the occasion, thanks of course to my alcohol benefactor and drink mixing advisor, Fred. We knew people would drink, but we were a bit overwhelmed at the demand! Everyone took a turn mixing, spilling, and drinking. I think that Caroline, Manyee, Christine, and I sampled too many drinks we made for others. Fred, like always, drank like a pro. Don't know where that guy puts all those drink....The upside was that he succeeded in getting my cousin's wife trashed!

FOOD
My mom and sisters put together a lot of great food: chile relleno, enchiladas, chicken mole, rajas con queso, beans and rice. I had originally planned to barbecue, but my family scoffed at that since they knew they could make something better than charred meat to impress my friends. Manyee made my mom’s day when she saw him sneaking back for seconds, thirds, fourths…don't know where that guy puts all that food. I made my own cake, not because no one offered to make/buy me a cake, but because I had a very clear vision about what I wanted: chocolate, chocolate, chocolate...mmmmm. My sister Julie and I ruined the first cake since it broke when it came out of the pan. But the next one was perfect (at least for my tastes). Speaking of food, as part of her birthday gift, Nav brought me some of her mom's rice pudding, one of my most favorite things ever (especially sans cardamon seeds). I promptly hid it in case anyone dare ask for a sample. Step off biatches! :)

I had a great time, and I hope everyone did too. When people look back at my little party I hope they rememebr the great food, drinks, the people, oh... and my mom beating the shit out of the piñata. She must be angry about something, I just don't want to find out what it is.