Escuela, Familia

Board games and blowouts

I’m slow when it comes to recapping weekends, vacations and fun days with the family. It’s worse if I have to upload and edit pictures. I know some bloggers do this daily and even recap each day of their vacation, but I can’t do that.

After being back at work for a couple of days, I’d like to go back and relive the long weekend — except for that part on Saturday night when the UCLA football team forgot to show up at the Coliseum. Yikes.

Other than Saturday night, the long weekend was filled with good times.

Sean and I kicked it off by watching The Muppets on Wednesday evening. We both loved it as did the rest of the audience in the theater. I plan to see it again soon. I’m pretty sure I missed some cameos and jokes because I was laughing too much (manically, of course). I’d also like to learn some of the original songs and add them to my karaoke go-to song list.

After for going for a sunny mid-day run on Thursday, I headed over with Sean to my madrina’s house in East LA. Madrina Chilo always hosts Thanksgiving and other family members bring sides and desserts. By the time Sean and I arrived a little after 3 with our sweet potato casserole, most of the family had already eaten. I’d barely eaten in the morning so, I couldn’t be bothered to photograph my first plate. After scarfing down turkey, ham and lots of carby sides — stuffing! mac and cheese! — we retired to a spare bedroom with the rest of the cousins.

We played Imagine If and Last Word, took silly photos, and tried to keep baby Minel from stealing our cell phones. I liked the Last Word. It’s an easy game to set up and play with several people. It also made us laugh a lot as we tried to think up words that went along with the category (e.g. things in a purse) that started with the designate letter. Before everyone went home, we also picked names for the big family Christmas gift exchange.

I hope Sean enjoyed his first Thanksgiving with my family, even if he didn’t get his usual turkey leg… at least not initially. I luckily was in the kitchen just as Madrina Chilo was carving the second turkey and asked for the turkey leg to take home with my other leftovers. Yes, I brought my own tupperware.

I didn’t do any late night shopping on Thursday or hit the stores for deals on Friday and attempted to make some pumpkin pie. It didn’t work out well, but redeemed ourselves with some brownies. Instead, we ate leftovers, watched movies (Drive and The Muppets Take Manhattan) and were lazy.

Saturday was another chill day. I supported some small businesses (local nail salon for a pedicure, tacos from a local restaurant). I didn’t watch the USC/UCLA game since I don’t have cable. Instead I just got ESPN updates with each scoring play. A 50-0 loss sucks, but I wasn’t terribly disappointed or embarrassed. I’m not the one on the field or sidelines. Nor am I the one hiring and recruiting the coaches and students involved with the football program. There are many other reasons to be embarrassed and ashamed by college football programs and your alma mater than losing in a blowout to your rival.

At the end of the game, I thought of the UCLA marching band’s post-game ritual. I was in the band during my first two years, it was fun, but time consuming during football season. After each game, we’d play the alma mater, “Hail to the Hills of Westwood” on the sidelines. If we won the game, we’d play and sing a silly song called “Rover.” Then we’d change out of our uniforms and get back on the bus to Westwood. As our buses traveled the final few blocks in to campus, we’d sing the alma mater a second time. I miss those moments and wanted to sing the alma mater again even if it wouldn’t be followed with “Rover.” Maybe when I finally graduate, I’ll audition to be the singer at the ed school ceremony. That would be cool.

Familia, Halloween

Halloween with the family

I love Halloween. I love my family. And I love parties. (Though not in that order!) Saturday night brought all three together at my cousin Nancy’s Halloween party.

First off, Nancy (as an Adelita) was the perfect hostess. She and her helpers did an awesome job decorating the house, preparing food and snacks, ribbons for the best costume winners, and making sure everyone had a great time.

My favorite decorations were the white van in the driveway with a label bearing the name of the San Bernardino County coroners office and the family graveyard in a corner of the yard. My siblings and several cousins had headstones, but my cousin Tony didn’t make one for me. I didn’t mind, but Lori was sad to find her headstone.

I also liked the silly best costume ribbons.

The best part — aside from the food, drinks and dancing with friends and family — was checking out everyone’s costumes. It’s always fun to see costumes come together or seeing what someone came up with. More costumes after the jump.

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Familia

Mil Gracias

I celebrated my 31st birthday last Saturday with a party at my parents’ house. Lots of family and friends — several I hadn’t seen in years — came by to celebrate, eat delicious food, drink, dance, and watch the Mayweather/Ortiz fight. My guests subtly requested that I show the fight, so I added it to the entertainment budget. It was a fun night, even if I was already tired and ready to call it a night before 11:30.

One thing I regret from the party was not grabbing the DJ’s mic and thanking the guests after we cut the cake. If I had, I would have said something along these lines:

In planning and preparing for the party, I had a lot of help from my parents, siblings, extended family, close friends and Sean. My family hosts a lot of big parties (75+ people) at our house and they’ve got it down to a science. Seriously.

Mil gracias go to:

Mom
While running errands and setting up on Saturday, I kept thinking that she deserved a whole post on her master party planning and hostess skills. If my mom ever wanted to leave working with special needs kids at schools, I’m pretty sure she could start a second career out of party planning/day-of-event coordination. My mom is awesome, and I’m not saying that because I get half my DNA from her. I’ve seen her host a taquiza (taco party) without a functioning kitchen for 40+ people with just a few hours of preparation. For this party, she secured some decorations on loan from friends, cooked a delicious spread of ~200 chicken enchiladas (with homemade enchilada salsa, of course), beans, rice, salad, and chicken/beef/cheese nachos with warm and toasty tortilla chips. She didn’t have her usual expert helper (my godmother/her sister Chilo), to help her out. Instead, Sean, I and Mamá Toni filled in in when necessary. Still, my mom deserves all the credit as she did the heavy lifting.

Dad
He’s equally good at this party thing. While my mom handles most of the indoor preparation in her shiny new kitchen, dad takes care of the outdoor set-up. His job started Thursday evening when he picked up a custom-made tent from my cousin Tony (thanks, primo!). The next morning, he recruited any extra hands around the house — that morning there were a lot including Papá Chepe, Padrino José and Danny — to put up the tent. On Saturday afternoon, he put up strings of white lights around the tent and under the carport. “Charlie Services” never fail me.

Lori
My sister used her baking skills to make cupcakes topped with Lotería cards and Mexican wedding cookies. She made my favorite carrot cake cupcakes as well as a few other flavors (vanilla, funfetti, chocolate). At the same time, she was baking and decorating cupcakes for another “client.” Later in the day, Lori did my makeup and helped me get all dolled up. She was even patient when I threw a hissy fit about the eyeshadow being a little too dramatic.

Danny
My older brother helped with the set-up and take down. He does it all without complaining and with a smile on his face. Oh, and he made sure to sing Las Mañanitas extra loud. I’m glad he did. He has a great voice.

Cynthia
Danny’s girlfriend came over after work late Friday night and joined Lori’s baking team. Cynthia created the “triple threat” chocolate cake featuring chocolate ganache, Nutella and banana filling. They were up until the wee hours of the morning. Her work paid off. The cake was delicious and she received several compliments.

Sean
He got his first taste of Mosqueda party hosting and worked like a champ. He helped where ever he was needed, whether it be putting up the papel picado, setting up tables and chairs, or helping my mom to make the enchiladas. He took over my usual job of lightly frying the tortillas and burned himself on the pan. Oops. He also took over photo duty.

Tía Paty, tío Iván and Stephen
My aunt and uncle are always early to parties and ready to lend a hand. This time tía Paty called ahead and asked if my mom needed anything. All my mom needed was an extra hand and she came through as did tío Iván and my cousin Stephen. They helped set up the tables with the fruit and salsa.

Adrian
The little brother wasn’t actually at the party. Due to scheduling conflicts I had to push back my party to the 17th, the same day as Adrian’s birthday and the weekend he was planning a camping trip. His girlfriend planned a small surprise BBQ on Thursday and we pre-celebrated his birthday. He was a good sport about me stealing his birthday.

Friends/family who loaned us stuff
We borrowed tables from some friends/neighbors. We borrowed our neighbor’s actual yard. My cousin Valerie loaned me her globe lanterns. My cousin Tony loaned us the tent he custom made.

The Guests!
Of course! It was nice to celebrate my 31st birthday with many of the same people who celebrated my 21st birthday with me.

Otra vez, mil gracias!

Familia

The new girl

Daisy greeted me when I stopped by my parent’s house to pick up my sister a month ago. I figured she was one of the neighbors’ dogs who had just gotten out.

“She’s been here since the morning and won’t leave,” Lori told me. “I think Chepe fed her.”

She kept hanging around and watched as we drove off. When we returned from the baby shower, she was still hanging around.

A few days later, Lori sent me a photo of my parents sitting side by side. Mom held VR, the spoiled dog we’ve had for seven years. Dad held the new girl he’d named Daisy because of her Daisy Duke-like legs.

My parents decided to take her in until a possible owner showed up. They took her to the vet to look for a chip. She had none. While there, my mom tried to encourage another man looking for a rescue to take her home, but he wasn’t interested. Later, my dad scolded her, “She’s not for giving away!”

My family registered Daisy, who we found it just seven months old. She got her shots and got fixed too. She’s legit now and she’s part of the family.

VR doesn’t seem too happy about it. She gets in his space and takes away attention from him. I really can’t see why.

Familia, Viajes

Yosemite day 3: Tuolumne Grove and thunderstorms

Tuesday was our final day enjoying Yosemite, but we didn’t expect it to be. Everyone slept in that morning and we had a lazy breakfast before heading out around noon to Tuolumne Grove about 15 minutes away.

Tuolumne Grove is home to some of California’s famous Giant Sequoias. It’s not as famous as Yosemite’s other grove of Sequoias, Mariposa Grove. It’s also not as crowded. There were only a few other people in the grove that afternoon.

The hike down the grove (yeah, down) is only a mile. Once in the grove you can follow several paths through the grove. The paths lead you around the trees and placards with information about the Giant Sequoias. Since I’m a nerd and find the very old trees fascinating, I read all the placards. And then I quoted them to my cousins as #treefacts.

By the time we ended our tour of Tuolumne Grove, the weather had changed. It was cooler and clouds were starting to move in. We had a chilly lunch at the picnic tables and then returned to the campsite.

Dinner back at Hodgdon Meadows was simple (hot dogs cooked on skewers; s’mores) and we got things cleaned up and ready to head out to the Starry, Starry Night free program 15 minutes away. Even though it was cloudy, we hoped the clouds would clear up. I was really looking forward to this program. I did something similar with my family when we visited the Grand Canyon in the early 90s.

Sadly, we never left the campground. It started to rain around 8, a little before we originally planned to leave for the starry night program. The rain never let up. Everyone rushed in to the tents and hoped they would keep out the rain.

They didn’t. Instead, we started to pack up our clothes up in case water seeped in to the tents. Everything was placed in sleeping bags. Adrian and Alexis put away their tent (which they had abandoned the previous night when their inflatable mattress deflated for the second time; they slept in the Durango). Along with De’Shaun and Jen, they were the first ones to abandon the tents for the cars.

Lori, Sean and I (who shared a tent) listened to the heavy rain, watched the flashes of lightning and listened to the thunder. Lori kept worrying about rain seeping in and never sat down. I chilled on the air mattress even though water was already starting to drip in through the seams. We moved the mattress slightly and moved anything we didn’t want to get wet away from the edges.

Lori then went to Nancy, Vanny, Valerie and Junior’s tent to hang out with them. They had some snacks and acted scared of the rain, until they noticed that they wouldn’t be able to sleep in the tents because was water was seeping in.We heard Rene yell that there was a river running through his tent and a lot of scrambling outside.

Everyone abandoned the tents for the cars. Sean and I stayed. I knew I wouldn’t sleep in a crowded SUV. The tent was cold, and the thunder and lightning was scary, but I was still relatively dry. I even slept a little. Sean wasn’t so lucky and got dripped on a little more later in the night. My cousins joked that we were like the old couple in Titanic cuddling on their bunk as the deck flooded, resigned to their fate. At least we didn’t get washed away or had the tent collapse on us.

When we awoke the next morning, it was still raining, but the campsite was no longer full of puddles. Everything was wet, including our firewood. If we were better prepared for the rain, we may have been able to salvage the trip. A couple of umbrellas and emergency ponchos weren’t enough. Junior sadly delivered the news that we’d be packing everything up and heading home a day early.

“Besides, we won’t be able to do much today as all the trails will be wet,” he reasoned.

We worked quickly to get food, clothes and supplies packed. We placed the muddy and wet tents in Junior’s car since there was a plastic cover in the back. Everyone was freezing (it was in the 40s) when we finally checked out and began the trip home. We warmed up in the cars although some us were still in wet clothes.

Although we were all bummed about being rained out, the rain and clouds gave us some more breathtaking views as we drove home.

I’d love to return to Yosemite. There’s so much to see and do that even a 4 day trip would not have been enough. It’s easy to see why it was the first National Park and why you have to plan ahead for reservations. Next time, I’ll prepare for the rain, especially if we go early in the summer.

Several of the photos in this post and the previous Yosemite posts were taken by Sean, my sister Lori or cousin Vanessa. If you’d like to see any more of the photos, just click on any photo and it’ll take you to the Flickr set. Enjoy.

Lotería Chicana

Category Archives: Familia