We shared our New Years Eve with dear friends who drove in from out of town to celebrate with us. Children ran around and laughed, adults chatted, we set off lots of little fire crackers at the sensible hour of 9 p.m. and then everyone curled up under the warm covers of their beds for a peaceful sleep. We all woke up refreshed and ate lots of thick-sliced cinnamon-toast. There were many delightful moments, but the only one I managed to capture on camera was my wee Bloom under the table entertaining himself with a bowl of satsuma oranges.
I lived in Japan for 2 years, and, because satsuma oranges are a traditional wintertime treat there, I have a special spot in my heart for these little round oranges. I also love the tradition of
toshikoshi soba -- eating soba noodles on New Years Eve. The noodles are eaten to bridge the old year into the new. Also, because the long noodles are said to be a symbol of long life, they are eaten as a sort of symbol for good luck. We did not have noodles on New Years Eve, however we did head over to our favorite noodle joint last night for some steaming bowls of soba (or, in the case of wee Bloom, fist-fulls of soba!)
Do you have any special traditions for bringing in the New Year? How did you celebrate?
I love the idea of new year satsumas! And as a fan of soba noodles I could happily embrace those as a new year tradition. If soba noodles signify bridges and long life then I think Wee Bloom's one sock must signify a good balance in the year ahead (one foot warm and one foot cool, you see).
ReplyDeleteMy new years was very peaceful - a lovely home cooked (not by me - hooray!) dinner and a good long natter.
Happy new year to you x
hi Margaret!! a happy new year to you!!! i just had a huge blog read catch up here and enjoyed seeing and reading about how you spent December (i was waaaay behind!)
ReplyDeletesome of my favorite new years traditions come from living away from home too...when i lived in Bogota, we ate twelve grapes at midnight one for good health every month of the year (i just went back to my archives to when i asked a similar question and there were some funny answers there
http://kleas.typepad.com/kleas/2007/01/happy_new_year.html
many blessings to you and your family in 2012. xxx
Happy New Year to you and your family! I love finding little ones hiding under tables. Wishing you an incredible year ahead!
ReplyDeleteAnd...we received our book! I just love it! I think we'll need to wait a bit before reading it to Alyce, but I'm not too concerned with that because I can read now! Thank you so much!
We make fondue for New Years Eve--recipe on my blog at http://artofnaturalliving.com/2011/04/01/cheese-fondue-451-save-our-gruyere/
ReplyDelete'It was a meal for special occasions and ultimately became our New Year’s tradition; avoid the drunks, eat fondue, then curl up in front of a fire to watch “The Holiday.”'