La fiesta (aka, the drunken mess of 40 year olds)

When Marta (my spanish mother) said she was going to invite a few friends over to celebrate her 40th birthday, I envisioned a few grown adults, gathered around chatting and sipping some wine (because this is Spain, they love their wine.) But, I have never mis-judged something more. My first clue that this quite affair was not going to be so.. quite, was when I saw the guest list. Turns out "a few" friends, meant 50+. Well, okay, Marta is the calm type, surly her friends are too, no problem. But then Tomas (the dad) arrived home with the beverages from the party. Which I'm pretty sure he cleaned out several stores alcohol sections, and no joke, it took to cars to transport it all. They day of the party rolled around, Marta (as she is now does on a daily basis) gave me a fashion show of all the possible outfits, and spent the day primping. It was kind of adorable, she looked like a teenager getting ready for prom. Anyways, as the guests started arriving, I decided maybe I'd scaddadle for a bit with my own friends, and let her enjoy her party without having to remind everyone to speak castellano so I'd understand. And moreover, I've learned from previous experience, that once a little alcohol is in them, they tend to love to fire away questions at me, which is fine, except for slurred-spanish is just a little to difficult for me to understand. When I left the house, the party was almost how I imagined it, everyone merrily chatting (a little louder then I thought) and with a drink in hand. Around 2am, I thought surly the party would be well over, considering it started a good 6 hours before, and I'd just slip in and head off to bed. As I got closer to my house, i heard the beats of lady gaga, which, isn't so unusual since I live near a park, and sometimes people have a boom-box and hang out there. But as I got closer, I discovered the music was in fact, coming from my building. Yes, the music of the pop sensation audible from a block away, was coming from the 40 year old christmas party at 2am. I hesitantly decided to go in, considering I didn't really have much else to do at 2am, and as soon as I opened the door, I man with our christmas tree star balanced on his head immediately greeted me with (very loudly, considering he had to out-yell the music) "Bienvenido a la fiesta de navidad!" (welcome to the christmas party!) Then, Marta came running over, tipsy at best, saying, "es la Stevie, es la Stevie!" (It's Stevie, It's Stevie!) As she ran around the room yelling this, the man with the star followed after her asking "quien es la Stevie?!" (who is Stevie?!) After I was wished a Merry Christmas, or a Feliz Navidad, or a Bon Nadal (or really it was more of a combination of these three) I made it to me room, just as, song change, Tik Tok came on. Needless to say, the party wasn't near over, and instead of sleep I enjoyed a piece of cake and a wonderful playlist of the hottest songs, which, inspired karaoke, dancing, and much more. The party finally ended around 5am, and people started leaving (those who could.. a majority of them ended up leaving the next afternoon.) I guess I should have seen it coming, because there is no such thing as a nice, calm party in Spain. And in case your wondering, the christmas tree star (along with a majority of the other decorations) didn't survive. Luckily, little Tomas made us some nice new ones.