No discernable actual royal blood, but a bit of a princess none-the-less, Alex’s younger sister came to visit (from Miami) with her Moroccan boyfriend Youseff.
“We need to drink champagne and play croquet,” she had said after her first visit to the ranchito. That evening when it was getting cool, Olivia asked, “Do you have a Patagonia that I could borrow?”
“We don’t have any Patagonia,” I said, “Would you settle for something from the Gap?”
Olivia’s birthday was to occur during this visit so Alex and I decided to put together a croquet party for the event. But Olivia had other plans and in order to incorporate both, it turned into Olivia’s birthday weekend extravaganza.
We met at Alex and Olivia’s mother’s home in centro where Olivia and Youseff had planned a roof-top dinner with the Parroquia shimmering in the background. After dinner the flamenco dancers arrived with their back-up musicians and put on an amazing performance. Afterwards, as if on queue, fireworks erupted around the Parroquia for some local celebration. It was already getting late when I had to remind everyone to save some energy as the festivities were to continue the next day.
The next morning I put the filet mignon in the oven and set about putting out chairs, a tent and setting up the bar. People looked a little haggard from the night before but once the champagne and mimosas began flowing, everyone was up for round two of the celebration.
In fact, they were SO back into the swing of things that they stayed long past comida and I had to riffle around the kitchen to figure out what we could put together for the second meal of the day. Karl came to the rescue and with some frozen shrimp, pasta with jarred pasta sauce, leftover bread and wilted leftover salad, we fed the group a far less fabulous meal than the first.
Happy birthday Olivia. We’re still recovering.
“We need to drink champagne and play croquet,” she had said after her first visit to the ranchito. That evening when it was getting cool, Olivia asked, “Do you have a Patagonia that I could borrow?”
“We don’t have any Patagonia,” I said, “Would you settle for something from the Gap?”
Olivia’s birthday was to occur during this visit so Alex and I decided to put together a croquet party for the event. But Olivia had other plans and in order to incorporate both, it turned into Olivia’s birthday weekend extravaganza.
We met at Alex and Olivia’s mother’s home in centro where Olivia and Youseff had planned a roof-top dinner with the Parroquia shimmering in the background. After dinner the flamenco dancers arrived with their back-up musicians and put on an amazing performance. Afterwards, as if on queue, fireworks erupted around the Parroquia for some local celebration. It was already getting late when I had to remind everyone to save some energy as the festivities were to continue the next day.
The next morning I put the filet mignon in the oven and set about putting out chairs, a tent and setting up the bar. People looked a little haggard from the night before but once the champagne and mimosas began flowing, everyone was up for round two of the celebration.
In fact, they were SO back into the swing of things that they stayed long past comida and I had to riffle around the kitchen to figure out what we could put together for the second meal of the day. Karl came to the rescue and with some frozen shrimp, pasta with jarred pasta sauce, leftover bread and wilted leftover salad, we fed the group a far less fabulous meal than the first.Happy birthday Olivia. We’re still recovering.
