Cinco de Mayo Party

Considering it's been since August of last year that I posted, I suppose I've got a lot of explaining to do. First of all, I took a new job after 19 years with Unboundary. That's a big leap. A definite leap of faith. The timing was right. From so many different perspectives. I'm beyond grateful for the way things worked out.

And Harleigh moved to California. Probably a more emotional change for me than the new job. She's happy. That's all that matters. We talk three times a day, so the 3,000 distance apart doesn't seem quite so hard to swallow. And I'm planning a trip out west to visit her. She splits her weekdays between working for a home care company (she takes care of a sweet elderly lady, Miss Cathy) in the morning, and then nannying twin four-year-old girls in the afternoon and into the early evening. The family gave her a car, so I took hers. Such a blessing considering my old Honda had over 250,000 miles on her, and every drive to work was on one wing and a prayer, and every dashboard light that went on, every clink of the engine, made me cringe with how much I might be spending to keep her running. Harleigh lives in a three bedroom / three bathroom townhouse with two other girls, and is within walking distance of her boyfriend (a structural engineer who had moved out in September for a pretty amazing job opportunity). It's all good. I feel very blessed with this new chapter of my life.

On to the new job . . .

I started on October 26, a little late to lend my hand to any planning around their Halloween party. But I jumped right in to the Christmas party planning, and worked with a planning committee to help me navigate the expectations. Once the new year came around, I looked to the next holiday that I could put my party planning stamp on. And Cinco de Mayo it was!

For the glass front doors to the office, I adhered these plastic decals.

Sculptural animal heads on the wall — the buck got a sombrero and mustache.

It was a pot-luck lunch. Everyone outdid themselves. It was quite the spread. And, of course, we had margaritas. (NOTE: I purchased these plastic margarita glasses from Party City. We had no luck using lime on their rims to hold salt. I even used the special margarita salt. I've read a few things online about how to get the salt to stick. Make sure you have a Plan B in place.)

For flowers, I purchased canned goods from the Mexican grocery and emptied them, filling them with  brightly colored silk flowers I had on hand. Cans were also used to hold plastic utensils.

For fun, I had this photo cut-out for photo opps, and tattoos (that's what the paper towels and bowls of water are for). The sombrero holds the tattoos.

I wanted to have a sombrero for everyone, but didn't want to just have a stack of them for the taking. Instead, I utilized a large push-pin wall, and created a sort of art installation.

Wish I would have gotten a picture of ALL the food. It was quite impressive. But I did capture images of my contributions. Both desserts. I made this cake with zucchini/toothpick cactus (which came to me the night a couple nights before as I wrestled with the limited number of Mexican desserts that seemed both good and easy). And I also tackled these Mexican chocolate cupcakes with a cream cheese cayenne frosting. Sooooo good!

We ate too much, drank too much, laughed a lot, and enjoyed a much deserved break from what had been a grueling span of long and stressful work days.