Trevor and I used to have an annual Christmas party before kids. The mood was always jolly, sometimes naughty (especially when we all wrote holiday poems one year. That degenerated quickly!)
I love being social. Yeah, it’s draining, but I was so eager to create a holiday mood in spite of the fact that we were wearing shorts and bare feet outside.
Would our neighbors come to a party? What are the typical Puerto Rican customs? Would it be rude to suggest they bring a dish to pass? Would they think, “Who are these gringos and why should I come to their party?”
We set the date and invited all the neighbors on our street. I had not met them all yet. It was an emotion challenge to muster up courage to knock on door after door and try to say in Spanish, “I’m your neighbor. You’re invited to my party!”
Our dead end street has 12 houses. Overall, 45 people were invited! (In the end about 30 attended) I bought copious amounts of food. And I was desperate to make the party fun so I bought some firecrackers. Nothing says fun like pyrotechnics.
Success! We held the party in our garage and driveway. I played my newly acquired salsa/Puerto Rican Christmas songs along with my swing holiday songs. EVERY neighbor brought food to pass. We ended up with more food at the end of the party than I started with!
The firecrackers were a big hit except to the little kids who all screamed and were shuffled quickly in our house by their mothers. oops.
They were so happy we hosted a street party. Many of the neighbors didn’t know each other yet. They laughed that it took outsiders to bring them all together- haha
I don’t think we’re outsiders anymore.