With a number of our far-flung family around me, and some of my oldest and closest uruguayan friends I really enjoyed a party held to celebrate my 60th birthday just before christmas.

Some textile notes – the mariachi singers were wonderfully clad in trim midnight black suits with braided trims and worn over ruffled shirts; and their fabulous hats carried a lot of hand embroidery in silver metallic threads. The G-of-H herself was less formally turned out in black linen shirt, white duck pants, the infamous gold tennies, and for a brief time sported one of the mariachi’s hats. These hats are quite heavy – and next time I go to the Mexican restaurant I must invstigate further, but I think the base of the hat, under the velvet, is thick papier mache. The singers are all Uruguayan but they produce the rich Mexican mariachi sound beautifully, and from the youngest grandchild to the oldest adult present, everyone enjoyed their performance.