So long, farewell, au revoir, auf wiedersehen

What a year!  

Let's celebrate the end with a heartfelt wish that next year we'll be together with our loved ones!

I prepared a late supper consisting of appetizers . . .

Shrimp cocktails . . .

Ham spread sandwiches on pretzel buns . . .

Deviled eggs with bacon and red pepper bruschetta . . .

Hummus with Naan Dippers . . .

Crab cakes . . .

The perfect spread to watch the weird show in Times Square without people . . . and to blog . . .

I didn't forget my grapes, two skewers holding twelve grapes each, our Cuban Tradition for New Year's Eve.

Wishing and praying for health, for ourselves and the entire world.  Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve: One of these things is not like the others . . .

A Cuban New Year's Eve custom is to eat 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight for good luck in the coming year, one grape for each month.  The tradition comes from Spain, where, not only are twelve grapes consumed at midnight, but the purported rule is to swallow one every time the bell rings at each strike of the clock.  Here's a link that explains the tradition a little more:  http://www.simplespanishfood.com/2010/12/twelve-grapes-doce-uvas-a-spanish-new-years-eve-tradition.html

This year, I prepared grape skewers to get ready for our New Year's celebration, but my husband felt he had the better idea of how to use the skewers . . . Maybe this is the start of a new tradition . . .

Happy New Year!  God bless us all!

Grapes

This is one of my favorite pictures of John. Naked, except for a diaper, a bump on his head, which happened often, and a bunch of tasty grapes in his hand. He was always such a curious child, and so uninhibited. Ahh . . . that mustard-colored floor . . . who would have imagined that someday I'd look upon it with nostalgia.