Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy New Year & Grapes to you!!

Happy New Year!

In just a few short hours, we will either quietly or with much celebration bring in the New Year, we will count down the seconds ring in a new year and go to bed (well at least I will) Actually hubby and I are going to dinner then we will be staying up to play Wii with the girls until midnight, quietly with the one's I love, and at the stroke of midnight I have to eat 12 grapes, I went to pick them up from my grandma's house and she had them all ready to go sorted into baggies for myself, hubby and the kids. This is actually a Spanish tradition that has been adopted by many hispanic cultures. The tradition consists in eating a grape with each bell strike at midnight of December 31. According to the tradition, that leads to a year of prosperity. Each grape is eaten with each beat of the bell. After the 12th strike everyone should have eaten all their 12 grapes, although this seldom happens due to its difficulty. (I hijacked this info from Wikipedia)because in all honesty I had no idea where it cam from I just knew that my grandmother had the grapes ready for us every year, oh yes and yellow underwear, no that's not a typo. Actually I didn't remember the yellow underwear until a few hours ago, despite the fact that it has been many years since I have received yellow undies from my grandmother, I still look back on the tradition with a smile. I did a little internet research and found this on the yellow underwear tradition:

In many Spanish-speaking countries, wearing yellow panties into the New Year will bring wealth and luck. Yellow is the color of choice because it is most closely associated with gold, Varon says.

Tradition says you must cast away your old underwear at the stroke of midnight on New Year's and put on a yellow pair. To be lucky, they must be new. Want some extra luck? Wear them inside out. How you get the underwear is believed to make a difference, too; receiving them as a gift is said to be best.


So I hope you have a Happy & Safe New Year!! I leave you with some New Year's quotes, enjoy!


Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.
Benjamin Franklin

Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right.
Oprah Winfrey


For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.
Edith Lovejoy Pierce

A happy New Year! Grant that I
May bring no tear to any eye
When this New Year in time shall end
Let it be said I've played the friend,
Have lived and loved and labored here,
And made of it a happy year.
Edgar Guest


We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential.
Ellen Goodman

The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.
G.K. Chesterton

Many people look forward to the new year for a new start on old habits.
Author Unknown


Never tell your resolution beforehand, or it's twice as onerous a duty.
John Selden


Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.
Oscar Wilde

One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: To rise above the little things.
John Burroughs

May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions.
Joey Adams

I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the year's.
Henry Moore


New Year's Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time.
James Agate

New Year's Day is every man's birthday.
Charles Lamb

For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.
T. S. Eliot

Each age has deemed the new born year
The fittest time for festal cheer
Walter Scott

Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you're forced to.
Bill Vaughnv

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.
Bill Vaughan


It wouldn't be New Year's if I didn't have regrets.
William Thomas

Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunder-storm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols.
Thomas Mann

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Belated Happy Holidays

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and wishing you all a Happy New Year!!