Happy First Day of the New Year!

Spent nearly an hour at midnight, Skyping with eldest daughter J, and her partner A, in Manila. Of course they have had their New Year celebrations as they are away on the other side of the globe!

While I was distracted in front of the computer, daughter #3 snapped this photo using my new camera.

Cheers and a bubbly new year to all of you! And hey, we get another excuse to celebrate another version of this during the Lunar New Year in February!

*

PS - Our Media Noche feasting was modest (I suppose, compared to times of yore in my childhood, or in general), but happy and filling nonetheless-- To go with our bottle of bubbly, a little wedge of cheese and some multigrain crackers, I made a pot of Arroz Caldo laced with lots of toasted garlic and fragranced by rich threads of saffron. Just a bowl of that with a sprinkling of chopped green onion and a squeeze of lime or dayap is the ultimate comfort food for us. I don't know when the women in my family (back in Baguio) first began making it as a New Year's Eve dish, but we have always followed in that wonderful tradition. I also made sure there were a few round things on the table, to augur luck and good fortune, according to the elders.

***

PS - first poem I've written for the New Year, in response to Dave's Morning Porch trigger today. As usual he has moved the poem to Via Negativa.