Hello, Goodbye

New Year's Eve is the one night of the year when the kids beg to go home and sleep in their own beds and the parents keep saying, "Not yet, just a few more minutes 'til midnight. Whoopie!" "But, Mommy, I'm TIE-uhd!" "Not long now. Go have fun, here's a piece of chocolate."

At least that's the way Venezuelans do it.

New Year's Eve is a major family holiday for Venezuelans and we were invited to experience this year's cultural fanfare and festivities. Arriving at 8:00 PM, we were, (like we always are) some of the first guests to show up. It's taken us over five years to learn that when Venezuelans invite you to a party that begins at 8:00 PM, most people in the know arrive at 10:00 or 10:30 PM.

Tons of Venezuelans were there: our friends, their children, their parents, brothers, sisters in law, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, other Venezuelan friends, one other American family, and us. A wonderful, spirited crowd indeed. There was an impressive spread of food on one table with ham, salads, the Venezuelan version of delectable tamales, a lentil dish that is to be the very first thing eaten in the new year to encourage twelve months of good fortune, key lime pie, and lots of other stuff, but we weren't supposed to eat from that table until midnight! Luckily there were plenty of other things to keep our minds off the main meal: appetizers, dips, chips, wine, beer, margaritas, kids running around, presents under the tree, music, fun people to talk to.

Despite his best efforts, Johnny pooped out for good around 10:00 PM. We put him on a bed full of older kids who were watching tv and doing loud kid-stuff, but he slept all the way through. Despite our best efforts, Grace wasn't able to fall asleep, though she begged to go home and sleep in her own bed. Complete torture waiting for the strike of midnight!

Around 11:30 PM, champagne glasses were poured and passed and grapes were counted and distributed. Grapes? Yes, twelve grapes for each person. The custom is that twelve seconds before midnight, each person is to eat twelve grapes (one per second? Couldn't be done!), each grape representing a wish for the new year. Then we all counted down, toasted the new year, then hugs and kisses all around. All of the kids, except for Johnny, were awake and celebrating with their parents. After eating our first meal of the year, a fireworks display, and a little more champagne for those who weren't driving, we called it a night. and made it home around 1:30 AM.

When the kids and I stumbled into the kitchen around 9:30 AM (major sleeping in for me!) David had eggs, toast, bacon, and hashbrowns cooking up for us. And he'd already run 5 miles.

Happy 2007!