Happy Happy New Year's

Do you eat grapes on New Year's Eve??  Actually I have never heard of this tradition before but apparently, in Spanish cultures, you are suppose to eat 12 grapes in 12 seconds at the stroke of midnight.  I saw this on Pinterest last week and a party was born!!  It has been several years since I have thrown a party.. work, kids, something always got in the way.  When we built this house we had a visions of cocktail parties, intimate suppers with good friends, pool parties with neighbors, etc.  9 years have quickly gone by and I think we have had only 4 parties here.  So my New Years resolution is to get my Martha on and host some doozies!!  Starting with New Year's Eve!

So where does the grape eating tradition come from?? According this wine blog... "the tradition was invented by the grape producers! The story goes that around 1909 there was a bumper crop of table grapes in Alicante ( a southern Spanish province on the Mediterranean) and the farmers were going to have tons of surplus grapes that would just rot unless they could somehow get people to buy them. Someone had the bright idea to promote the idea of eating 12 grapes to celebrate the 12 rings of the bell to ring in the New Year and the rest, is history." 

Some other fun facts about New Years..

• People wear red underwear in Italy on New Year's Day as a symbol of good luck for the upcoming year.
• More vehicles are stolen on New Year's Day than on any other holiday throughout the year... so lock your car!
• Stay away from bad luck foods like lobsters, because they move backwards, and chicken, because they scratch in reverse. It is believed that eating these on New Year's day might cause a reversal of fortune.

Although I don't know which cocktails I will be serving tomorrow night..

I do know that I will be rockin a sequin top like this, wearing an enormous smile because I will be with my friends & family, and of course I will be thinking of all of you.. Happy New Year's!!

  

Enjoy!!

update...  The grape tradition was a huge hit with the gang!