Have I mentioned before that I like to do things in a big way and tend to make enough food for a small country? Well, we recently had an event that was big enough to challenge even MY excessive ways! A little background….
Several years ago my husband and I faced some ugly facts about my weak points: I am NOT a fantastic housekeeper. This is a gross understatment and my way of fessing up to being pretty lousy at dusting, vacuuming, and scrubbing floors. It isn’t that I am incapable of doing these activities, but it just became apparent that unless threatened with bodily harm I just wouldn’t get around to cleaning my house. It isn’t that I have a sink full of dishes and stacks of laundry piled to the ceiling…. I do those everyday things to enable us to move freely about the house…. BUT unlike my daughter, who believes a vacuum cleaner is a GREAT birthday gift, I barely recognize one when I see it!
I tried over and over to change my evil ways, but at some point the “Old Dogs, New Tricks” theory proved itself to be true. Greg, the saintly husband, kept telling me to hire a housekeeper — I, unwilling to admit defeat, kept insisting that I was going to do better. Finally I passed from the denial stage to the acceptance phase, and I found Maria!! Recommended to me by my squeeky clean daughter, Kris, I knew she would be more than adequate for my exacting standards!!
So about six years ago, Maria started cleaning my house. Not only is she great at her job, dependable, and thorough…. she is just a delightful woman who has raised four children on her own by cleaning houses. Maria is truly an amazing person… she has a great attitude, and sense of humor, and she takes life as it comes and deals with it. Greg and I have come to think of Maria and her husband, Jose, as friends and we have gotten to know her family and vice versa. They are invited to our grandkids’ birthday parties and last year we had a KILLER Cinco de Mayo party together. ( If you stick with me, I will give you all those great Mexican dish recipes as well!)
SO, when Maria told me that her daughter, Maritza, was going to have a baby, naturally the first thought I had was “BABY SHOWER!!” She was thrilled at the offer and so we agreed we would do it. She would do most of the cooking, but I would decorate the house, provide flowers and the cake.
So one day Maria is here cleaning and I brought up the subject again. Well, she says, she had her daughter make a list of attendees, and it is more people than she thought. Maybe I want to rethink this plan, she says…. OH, but NO, I say… the more the merrier, HOW many people do you expect? Between 90 and 100, she says!!! Now I am aware that Mexican families are often large and that it would probably be a pretty good crowd. Picturing 100 people with 100 gifts, however, resulted in a “deer in the headlights” moment that Maria quickly recognized as possible hesitation on my part. She graciously offered to let me totally off the hook. NO NO NO, I said, we have plenty of room in the backyard, it will be great fun, don’t be silly, blah blah blah. Our backyard is really great for big parties, as the pool is at one end and then there is a huge expanse of grass, perfect for setting up table and chairs for a crowd. All we need is perfect weather, and after all, this IS Southern California!
The decision is made, Greg is totally on board with the idea, and offers to make one of his spectacular fruit arrangements. To go with this thing of beauty I will make my VERY EASY, yet VERY DELICIOUS, Cream Cheese and Yogurt fruit dip. You will love this dip and ALL you have to do to get the recipe is tune in for Installment Two of “The Giant Baby Shower”! !
