January 3, 2013 – The Birthday Boys (Steve, Jesus, and 2013)
December 23 is my birthday, and about a week before, we had discovered a beachside terrace restaurant that has live music in the evenings. December 23 was listed as Blues Night, which is my favorite, so we planned to spend a quiet evening together over dinner, drinks, and music on the beach. But first, we thought we’d spend the afternoon walking around Barra and perhaps have a beer at Popeye’s, a nice little bar/restaurant just on the edge of the Malecon. It was a beautiful day, and reminded us of why we like Barra so much. Whilst sitting in Popeye’s drinking a beer and watching the world go by, we heard a shrill whistling, and Santa rode his bicycle by! He was headed for the malecon and had three little nosepickers just digging to catch up with him and be the first on his lap. Well, we definitely had to go and watch this for a bit. Turns out the emerging Mexican Santa trope is the full traditional Santa costume plus a shiny whistle. Don’t know why, it just is. He blows it a lot.
Santa, mermaids, and ocean. OK, I guess….
Steve’s birthday present at the Barra de Navidad malecon.
We got to our little restaurant promptly at 7 pm, and the manager informed us that our table for twelve was ready. Hmmmmmn…… Debbi managed to pull off another surprise party for me, complete with a large table of guests and a marvelous carrot cake (don’t ask where you get one of those in Mexico!). Surprising me must not be overly difficult, as this is, I think, the third time that she’s done this. It was a great night, and now I’m a year older.
Steve and Deb at the birthday party.
Carrot cake and tequila? Why the heck not!
This is our second Christmas in Mexico, our first being Christmas of 2004 with son Dave in Puerto Morelos on the Caribbean coast. This time around, we have been invited by our friends Kelly and Cheryl to share Christmas dinner with them, Jack and Irma, and Eric and Rochelle. Deb is contributing a honking big tureen of her signature ceviche, and Irma, Cheryl, and Rochelle are whipping up a traditional holiday feast of turkey, mashed potatoes, sage dressing, green things, and cranberry sauce. Everyone arrived around 4 pm, in plenty of time to catch up on the latest news, down their favourite social lubricant, and graze on a large assortment of antojitos whilst the ladies worked their magic in the cocina. And it was excellent! Kind of weird eating Christmas dinner around the pool in the dark of the evening while it’s still 32 degrees, but we’ll work on getting used to it….
We got home about 9 pm, which is just when the Christmas party at our villa was breaking up; they had dinner for 26! I’m sure that would have been quite a show, as half of the population in the villa is somebody’s grandma, and we all know how grandmas like to cook!
Christmas around the pool.
Irma the Candy Cane!
Our hostess Cheryl and her good friend Rochelle.
New Year’s Eve is generally a pretty quiet celebration for Deb and me. This time around, our friends Jack and Irma have invited us to an intimate party for 20 or so at Lucy’s Paradise, which is a really cool little bar that features live entertainment just a half-block from the lagoon in Barra. It isn’t a restaurant, but you can get anything you want to eat from the restaurant across the street; the waiter simply jaywalks over and serves you! Tonight, the restaurant set up a really big barbecue on the sidewalk across the street, and the chef barbecued up about 50 lb of excellent ribs for us, which were served with salad and garlic mashed potatoes and washed down with the poison of our choice from the bar. Then the 4-piece band showed up and played very good music (mostly blues and light rock) until Deb and I left, which was about 10:30. I know, I know! But the room was starting to move around significantly, which is apparently a side-effect of too many margueritas, and we thought that we’d better get a bit closer to home in case our condition took a turn for the worse. Our good friends Terry and Joe were sitting at the palapa counting down, so we joined them until the dirty deed was done, and we finally went to bed well into 2013. I’m pretty sure tomorrow is gonna be a REAL slow day….