PARTY ON!

Miss Nellie

Dearest Friends,

The next big party was given by our new friends Nellie and Dave.  They are the couple we spotted in our hotel cafe that very first day in Bahrain (though at the time we didn't even know they were from Texas, much less that they worked for the same company as us)  They and the Sanfords moved back to Houston at the same time as us, so we all became very close there, becoming parents together and throwing showers for each other.  We sort of lost track of them when we moved to Midland, then went back overseas.  However, when we moved back to Houston and went to get our son registered at his new high school, guess who was there, checking everyone's vaccination records?  Nurse Nellie!  Small world, huh?  We went a few years without seeing them after we both moved again, but now it turns out they are planning to retire to the Hill Country like us, and are scouting out their options, which is how we got to have this mini-reunion with her and the Sanfords recently.

But I digress.  We're supposed to be talking about great parties here!  You see, many of the B&R employees were from Texas, and we missed our good ol' Tex-Mex food somethin' fierce!  You could get Mexican at the American Club occasionally, and there was another restaurant called Dreamland that served it on Thursday nights, but it just wasn't the same.  Then Nellie had a brilliant idea.  None of us felt up to fixing an entire Mexican dinner all on our own, from guacamole and margaritas through pralines and tres leches, but we each had at least one thing we could make fairly well.  So, Nellie decided to host a Mexican potluck, inviting about ten couples over, and asking each one to bring something.

Man-oh-man!  Did we ever feast that night!  It was the last day of September, and the perfect way to celebrate the return of cooler weather.  It was so much fun, in fact, and so little work for the hostess, that I stole her idea and have hosted one of these myself almost every fall since!

Perhaps you are wondering why there are Christmas decorations up in September?  Well, I have a confession to make.  I couldn't find any photos from the Tex-Mex party, so I fudged and used some from another party that Nellie and Dave gave just a couple of months later, after they had moved into their new house on the company compound.  Same hosts.  Same guests.  Same country.  You get the idea.

P.S.  Aren't you just lovin' all this 70s Chic couture, and our Cher/Dorothy Hamill/Farrah Fawcett hairstyles?