The Best of Both Worlds

In Mexico, Christmas is just a big long party.  Everything starts nine days before Christmas, when the posada season starts.  A posada is basically just a Christmas party, but with one held every night for nine days until Christmas.  The nine days represent the nine months of pregnency before Christ was born. 

Well I was invited by my host family to visit some friends of theirs for the first party of the season.  Technically the posads season hasnt started yet, so we’ll call this a pre-posada, but really it is all the same to me. 

I hadnt gotten out of Mexico City for a while, so just going on an excursion anywhere was going to be fun, but the area we went to, XXXX, in the northwest corner of the city, is one of the poshest areas of Mexico, and just beautiful.  The whole area reminded me of Southern California, or at least the image I have of it.  Houses with stuccoe walls painted yellow, and red tile roofs, with open patios in the back full of greenery.  The day was sunny and perfect, and everything was just wonderful.  It is days like these that will make me miss Mexico the most.  We grilled flank steak, and then ate it with warm tortillas and guacamole.  As delicious a meal as I have ever had. 

My spanish is still not perfect, but I have improved alot over the last few months, and I really enjoyed just hanging around outside in the beautiful weather with some good conversation.  It can be intimidating though, and parties like this are a good time to measure your abilities.  The conversation didnt revolve around too much– talking about Michigan, my job, Japan, where I have travelled in Mexico.  Small talk mostly, but friendly and much appreciated. 

Finally after dinner we they brought out the pinata.  What more of a Mexican experience can you get than breaking the pinata?  When it was my turn to have a go I flailed about helplessly, finally get one good whack in before forced to pass the bat on to someone else.  All in all a very good day, and a good start to Christmas.