Mexican Day of the Dead Party

I was invited by my lovely friend, N., to attend a Mexican style Day of the Dead party this past Saturday. It was very cool!
Día de Los Muertos is held on November 1 every year and celebrates the lives of those who have died. It is not a somber holiday. Rather, they people gather together to drink, eat, laugh, and tell stories about the deceased. In some cases, they stay up all night in the cemetery.

Marigolds are the flower of the dead. I love marigolds!

My sweet, kind, generous, smart friend, N! She even got her face painted for the party. She represents Catrina, the fancy female skeleton of the Day of the Dead.

N. made some jalapeño poppers and some tasty Mexican soup.

N. told us about the Mexican tradition of building an altar. The glass on the left is salt water to represent tears.
You put a picture of the deceased on the altar and sometimes also an object they really loved.

This is traditional Mexican art made of tissue paper. It's called papel picado.

N made mini sugar skulls for us to decorate!

This is my sugar skull. I wanted him to be smiling. :D

Several friends stopped by for food and drinks and chatting in N's beautiful garden.

A very shy kitty that comes in N's house and is best friends with her black cat

My buddy, Australian Ian, and the black cat!

N bought an amazing cake! It is called a pan tres leches -- three milk cake. YUM.

Here you can see the neat way they cut cakes in Guatemala. They make a circle in the center and then cut slices around the outside. We ate a LOT of cake but it was soooooo delicious!

I'm sorry I haven't blogged much lately but time just seems to be passing so quickly! I'm still loving it here in Guatemal, although fall makes me very homesick. It's neat to feel the change in the air here though. It's the end of October but it feels kinda like the first week of September in an "Indian summer" in Canada. The river road where I walk Calvin is lined with orange and yellow flowers. There is a nice brisk wind that keeps the heat at bay...most days anyway! The rain hasn't pretty much stopped and some of the trees on the hills are even turning colour, just like home! 

I've been spending a lot of time preparing for Hallowe'en...which is tomorrow! I can't wait to make my next blog post about the amazing party we're gonna have. Talk to you soon.  :)