Monday, January 2, 2012

Traditions Made New

A couple of years ago we started having people for New Year's Day brunch, which was I guess some sort of weird indication that we were becoming grown ups or whatever. It was the year after we bought a house, so maybe that had something to do with it. The first couple of years we spent the entire day totally hungover, but the hangover has slowly become less and less. 


This year instead of a brunch I prepared a four course dinner for a few close friends, and we just ate and drank and ate some more, and then we watched Bridesmaids. It was one of my favorite NYEs ever, and I've had some pretty amazing ones.


The next day was the birthday of my Aunt, so I made a cake for her and took it to a large family gathering at my Dad's instead of the brunch. The timing was perfect to have the burden be on someone else to host a big New Year's Day event, because of how busy we've been this month.




We spent the afternoon in the sun: a very welcome change for the start of the year. One that I hope will be a good sign of things to come. It's been a dark December.


One thing this means we missed out on was the annual NYD tradition that started that first year, one we like to call "Eat the Year." It is pretty much what it sounds like. We make an edible "20**" and then we consume it as a group. There has also almost always been some sort of skype/gchat thing happening, the most notable being a bi-coastal dance party. Over gchat. Moving on.


Original Eat the Year. We were a little egg crazy: new chickens, and someone brought duck eggs.


Well this year we did "Eat the Year" over gchat with some of the original creators and it was great. We had to eat all of it ourselves, since we were the only ones here, but it was good just to see the smiles on those friends faces as we just said hi for a minute and talked about what they year might bring (building more shelves, obviously). 


Good bye, 2011. You rocked.

For me, this simple tradition is just a way for us to mark the start of the year with the people that really matter to us. We feed our bodies with the food, we feed our heads with the idea of a fresh thing, and we feed our hearts and souls with a meal made with hope and love and joy in mind when it is made. It's nourishing all around. 




I hope the start of your year was as joyful and full of love as mine. Maybe this year you will start a new tradition, or find a way to keep up an old one that maybe needs some of the dust brushed off of it. And however you spent the time ringing in 2012, I hope it is the best year yet.





1 comment:

  1. Oh I love the last photo with L's paw in it! Adorbs.

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