Lack of information (part II)

We arrived at the party on time, which is very unusual for us because I am always on what I like to call "Mexican time". (A bit racist, but I am Mexican so I think I can get away with it! - More on that on another post) The hosts are a nice couple I have met a couple of times, but honestly I don't know much about them.  The wife is a high school friend of my husband's who lives in "the area" and because we are the same age range we are trying to keep in touch with, hopefully building on an old friendship.

Anyways, when we arrived with our SIX dozen cookies I immediately noticed lovely x-mas trays with only a few cookies on each. Hmmm I felt like ONE, I over did the cookies and TWO my presentation had a lot to be desired having placed the cookies in a bakers box. I didn't think this was after all a cookie exchange party like I had understood from my husband's "a cookie party". He now sings the tune that he said it was a 'baked goods party". 

People soon began to follow thru the door and after a few minutes; it was well noticeable that we failed to bring with us the accessory of choice.  I do not mean to sound ugly, but every couple there had at least one child and, well, we have no children.  I felt a bit out of place, but the hosts were nice to invite us. 

As I was trying to mingle and get to know the other guest I realized what they all had in common were their kids. They either attended school together or had another activity in common.  I also began to notice I was a little overdressed with my jeans, sequined tank top and little cardie.  All the ladies were very dressed down, not that my jeans weren't "dressed down," but I stood out.  I dismissed it to others being aware of the caroling later in the evening. Then, I heard one conversation go " how do you know them (the hosts)?" The response was, "I volunteer at the kid's school".  Blah, blah, blah.. more conversation that I wasn't really paying attention to since I was talking to someone sitting next to me but then the phrase "I am the captain of the green team" caught my attention.  Green team?? I thought to myself.  Ohhh.. it dawned on me as I scanned the room around.  These are what I call "granola folk" , the good people who live green and who make me feel ashamed of not doing more than recycling at home .  Austin and the area around it are full of them!

That made sense, cotton being the fabric of choice and me standing out in my "single lady" ensemble (my sister calls all bling/sequined clothes that because it reminds  her of Beyonce who wears a lot of it).  Yep, I felt out of place.  I moved in to the kitchen and hung out there trying to offer our host help, but the kitchen smelled phenomenal and everything was under control and on schedule.  Meanwhile the baked goodies table began to fill with more lovely trays and our cookie box looked more and more like a cement block anchoring it all down.

As I hovered in the kitchen chit chatting (mostly with my husband by this time because our lack of kids began to set us apart from the "the parents") I took advantage of sampling the aromatic soups our host had cooked.  Potato leek and tortilla soup, the latter being vegan I was told.  It went in and out of my ear until all the vegetarian and vegan cook books on a shelf woke me up!  Ding, ding, ding... not only were our cookies NOT vegan, but they weren't kid friendly either!!  We had taken my famous Rum Raisin Oatmeal cookies.  FULL of booze because the raisins had been macerating for weeks!  Oh my god!!  I laughed and panicked!  I laughed some more when I heard one of the guest say "I am going to put my cookies on this end and group all the other gluten-free goodies". 

I felt like Alice in Wonderland; totally out of place in a seemingly familiar land with odd customs, clearly not like the other cookie parties I had attended. We had a nice time, but I strongly feel had I seen the actual invitation instead of being given bits and pieces of information from my husband we would have been better prepared.  After some discussion, ok arguing, my honey has agreed again to forward future invitations to me-or at least let me read them myself to avoid the miscommunication.  Let's see if that happens...