Last Post, Last Dance 2009...Happy New Year!

Well here we are, another year and a new decade ahead.  Seems like 2000 was just a short time ago. 

When I was young, really young, years seemed to take an eternity.   Now that I'm not so young, they seem to fly by, ouch! I can't say that I'm sad to see this one over. It's been a tough year, financially and emotionally, for a lot of people, including me.  Just hang in there, this too shall pass....

Tomorrow I will celebrate New Year's with my four girls ( one two- legged and three four-legged) just like most people here in the United States.  We will cook a nice dinner, drink lots of champagne, and watch the crystal ball go down in Times Square.  That's the American side of the equation.  The other side of me, the Cuban side,  will fill a pail with water and throw it out the back door to bid farewell to all the bad things in the house.  I will not eat the twelve grapes that Cubans traditionally have at each stroke of midnight.  I have always hated that tradition and at my age, I'm entitled to skip it. 

On New Year's Day, I will make Eggs Benedict and Bloody Marys for brunch (my American side), but I will eat lentils for dinner for good luck, something which is observed not only in Spain, but throughout all of Latin America (very definitely my Cuban side). I will miss my bridge friends, and my beautiful dinner parties but I will be thankful and happy to have a wonderful family and friends who love and support me.  And ,oh yes, I will be thankful for this blog which has been so much fun and such a challenge at a time in my life when I thought I was done reinventing myself.

I leave you with one of the most beautiful tables I've seen decorated for New Years... by Carolyne Roehm, who else!

As I'm finishing this post, snow is beginning to fall in North Georgia...some things never cease to amaze me.  Happy New Year!