You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

What is happening in your world?

I can't do it! It's 10:45, and I need to go to bed.

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope 2016 is a great year for you all.

Happy New Year to you all. We ended up watching a couple films (Fury and Jurassic World). We saw the new year in and went to bed just before 1. I wasn't feeling too good yesterday so no drinking for me. All very civilised.

Happy new year! We had some great food and played board games. Very nice evening! I went to bed at 4.30am, something I will probably regret all today and tomorrow...

Happy New Year one and all!

We went to the pantomime (which was great), then had a homemade chicken curry, watched a bit of tv and played some games. Went to bed about 12:30.

What pantomime was it? Who were the celebs? I've not been to one since i was in my early teens.

Sarah wrote: "What pantomime was it? Who were the celebs? I've not been to one since i was in my early teens."

It was Peter Pan and Craig Revel Horwood from 'Strictly Come Dancing' was Captain Hook. He was brilliant! He can really sing too. There was also an impressionist who was once on 'Britain's Got Talent'.

I was in bed all day Dec 31 not feeling well. Finally got up 1/2 hr before 12 and decided to fix something to eat and celebrate the new year with my granddaughter. The neighbors all around were setting off illegal fireworks. They do it every year. All quiet now, but I am not ready to go back to bed yet. I looked out the back window and everything is covered in frost. Time to go start my next book, I guess.
Welcome to 2016 all!

Happy New Year to all! We had a fun night with the kids last night and went to bed once it turned 2016. Looking forward to a great year and a bit sad to see the old one go. Looking forward to many great reads, challenges and friends in 2016!

Happy New Year all!! We stayed in and watched the hockey game (Caps lost to the Hurricanes). They were on a 9 game winning streak so I guess they had to lose one game. We made it to midnight and watched Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve on TV after the hockey game. And pizza was our dinner! A great way for us to spend New Year's Eve :) hope everyone has a great 2016 and everyone feels better from their illnesses :)

Oh, poor Cherie. That's no way to celebrate the new year :(
I hoop you feel better soon!

Get well soon Cherie!

There were lots of fireworks going off in the local area at midnight but then it all went quiet until some clown decided to set off some really loud ones at 3:30!

Feel better, Cherie.

Oh Lisa, there's always one.

Get better soon Cherie ..

Happy New Year from Prague ! We went to a concert yesterday and then went for a walk through the Old Town before heading home for the evening ( lots of fireworks all around us but not as many as in the center of Prague) .

Marie, do people gather near the famous clock in the square in Prague on new years eve? We visited a few years back. You live in a lovely city.

Happy New Year everyone! We had a great time here at home, and went to bed just when the new year was beginning.

Get better soon, Cherie!

Every person we know who has visited Prague has said we HAVE to visit some day. We hope so.

I was in Prague for 1 day/1 night and despite the short visit I just remember it being so beautiful and a place I would love to visit for longer one day.

Get well soon, Cherie!!

Sarah wrote: "Marie, do people gather near the famous clock in the square in Prague on new years eve? We visited a few years back. You live in a lovely city."

Yes, they do, Sarah - and on Wenceslas Square , too. For me it is just too much - I don´t like crowds , so we usually take a walk earlier in the evening :)

I'm not surprised Marie. It was very crowded on a June day when the clock struck the hour while we were there let alone on new years eve. Sounds like you had the right idea.

Happy New Year to everyone! we stayed home, watched old movies be Twilight Zone episodes (a family tradition from when my kids were young and home). We had an assortment of snacks, and champagne (of course). Very laid back. I meant to stay up till midnight and watch the ball drop in Time Square, but I dozed off and missed it. Woke up to neighborhood fireworks. The dog was not pleased.

Eeek!!! I'm so excited!!! Blake is Chet's friend of the month for January! Chet is the dog from the Bernie and Chet series :) Blake gets to have his photo (that I had submitted) in the picture thing on Chet's Facebook page and I get an autographed and pawagraphed;) book, Scents and Sensibility from the author and Chet :) I never win anything!! What a way to start the new year :)

Congrats Stephanie! and congrats to Blake!
Let us know the link when his picture is posted!

Thanks, Sandra!! I will :)

Cherie wrote: "I was in bed all day Dec 31 not feeling well. Finally got up 1/2 hr before 12 and decided to fix something to eat and celebrate the new year with my granddaughter. The neighbors all around were set..."

I hope you feel better, Cherie!

Rusalka wrote: "less people strapping them to other people's cats.."

I'm not sure, I have understood this right...

Feel better Cherie!

Stephanie, that is so great about Blake being Chet's friend! Fun.

The City always does the fireworks at 10:00 and I can see them from my bedroom window. I crawled into bed at 10:45 and didn't even read, I was that.... tired. I have a vague recollection of hearing some banging and wondering if they decided to have more fireworks at midnight, or if it was just my neighbors above me coming home. I didn't pull myself out of sleep to investigate. I did wake at 2:30 with a raging hangover headache, but a Tylenol and more sleep fixed that.

Christmas decorations come down today. My grandson is 17 today and I'm hoping to spend some time with him today.

Happy New Year Everyone!
I was just curious since we have people here from all over the world, do you eat a certain food on New Years Day, for luck? Growing up in Pennsylvania we ate pork and sauerkraut, but here in Oklahoma they eat black-eyed peas.
So any other lucky New Years Day food out there?

Thank you all. I do feel better today. I am hanging out with my grandsons, Evan and Ryan, and doing laundry while Amy is at work.

Fireworks drove the dog onto the bed
This forced the cat to move to the pillow
This pushed my husband onto my side of the bed
I landed on the floor

I guess you could say I started the New Year with a bang

Ouch! That sounds more painful than noisy, Joan.

Lori Z wrote: "Happy New Year Everyone!
I was just curious since we have people here from all over the world, do you eat a certain food on New Years Day, for luck? Growing up in Pennsylvania we ate pork and sauer..."

My family has never really had any New Year's traditions. We'll be having pizza tonight for Tyler's birthday. Pizza and birthday cake.

Lori Z wrote: "Happy New Year Everyone!
I was just curious since we have people here from all over the world, do you eat a certain food on New Years Day, for luck? Growing up in Pennsylvania we ate pork and sauer..."

I'm from Hawaii, so we always had noodles of some type. Usually multiple types. I miss homemade soba. Also red fish like Ahi (the flesh is red) or menpachi (where it's red on the outside. I don't know the English equivalent of the name) Menpachi is less common because you have to fish for it yourself, stores don't sell it because fishermen eat it all up. Kanten, usually red, which is like jello, but firmer, and made from seaweed. Mochi- usually made into soup on New Year's Eve and fried after that and served with kinako. Although we also had various types of mochi filled with stuff like beans, chestnut, sweet red bean paste and sometimes coated with kinako. Kombu maki which is pork and gobo (burdock) wrapped in seaweed and tied shut with kampyo (a strip of gourd), then cooked in a soy based sauce.

Before the ban, I remember having whale blubber. Which is as gross as it sounds. I remember chewing and chewing and it never got smaller although it would spurt liquefied fat into your mouth. My son was watching Man v Wild and asked me what the most disgusting thing I ever ate was. You know how you think and you have a dialogue that goes on in your head? I swear, my brain got bypassed and my mouth immediately said whale blubber.

Mariab wrote: "Rusalka wrote: "less people strapping them to other people's cats.."

I'm not sure, I have understood this right..."

I think you have, as normal people wouldn't ever consider doing it.

Sounds like most everyone had a good New Year's Eve. Glad you're feeling better, Cherie, and congrats Stephanie, winning contests isn't easy!

My NYE was just another night, as I was working today. I think I was asleep by 10, didn't wake up at midnight, so I think my neighborhood stayed pretty quiet overall. I wasn't as productive at work today as I'd hoped, but I did get a good jump on some end of the year and end of the month stuff.

It's still really cold here, down in the 20's. I work for a local car wash company, so the weather is playing havoc with our car washes. I couldn't believe it though, my neighbors are outside with a bonfire - just goes to show how much Northwesterners love a rain-free day.

Lori Z wrote: "Happy New Year Everyone!
I was just curious since we have people here from all over the world, do you eat a certain food on New Years Day, for luck? Growing up in Pennsylvania we ate pork and sauer..."

we eat grapes and lentils

Rusalka wrote: "Mariab wrote: "Rusalka wrote: "less people strapping them to other people's cats.."

I'm not sure, I have understood this right..."

I think you have, as normal people wouldn't ever consider doing..."

good God!

@ Janice...Sounds like a fun night.

@Bella...noodles and Ahi I could handle, whale blubber not so much. Ugh! Thank goodness for the ban. What was your son's reaction when you said that?

@Mariab...I can't remember or even if I knew, but where are you from?

Not for luck and not for dinner, but tradition here is to eat oliebollen. They are balls of dough, often with raisins, that come out of the frying pan. Not healthy, but good!

Peggy wrote: "Not for luck and not for dinner, but tradition here is to eat oliebollen. They are balls of dough, often with raisins, that come out of the frying pan. Not healthy, but good!"

Yum! That's my kind of tradition, lol.

Lori Z wrote: "Happy New Year Everyone!
I was just curious since we have people here from all over the world, do you eat a certain food on New Years Day, for luck? Growing up in Pennsylvania we ate pork and sauer..."

Some dish with lentils - because how many lentils you eat that much money you will have :). Our family tradition is duck with potato dumplings and sauerkraut.
(and for Christmas Eve we always have carp and potato salad)

No food for luck here but generally a roast, same as Christmas day. That's what we had.

I don't think I ate any food NYE at all. Well breakfast and lunch whatever that was. I never knew people ate luck food or a soecial meal at all I have never heard of anyone doing that around here

Sandra wrote: "Congrats Stephanie! and congrats to Blake!
Let us know the link when his picture is posted!"

Here is the the link to the website for Chet the dog! http://www.chetthedog.com/
Blake is the Facebook profile pic for the month of January :) but not sure how to post the Facebook link from my phone :(

Lori Z wrote: "@ Mariab...I can't remember or even if I knew, but where are you from? ...."

I'm from South America. But many of our traditions are "imports" from Europe (colonization and such).
Almost all traditions are season related (in all countries), but being "imports" from the nord part of the globe, therefore they are actually very unsuitable or incongruous with the season of the year

Mariab wrote: " but being "imports" from the nord part of the globe, therefore they are actually very unsuitable or incongruous with the season of the year ."

Hear hear!

Rusalka wrote: "Mariab wrote: " but being "imports" from the nord part of the globe, therefore they are actually very unsuitable or incongruous with the season of the year ."

Hear hear!"

Well, yes, they are mostly preparations for winter, therefore the peas or lentils, the fruitcakes (there will be no fruits in 3 or 4 months), the roasted pigs and the charcuterie (pigs eat the same food as people, therefore they "compete" with the humans in winter, they must be slaught and only a pair would be let for next year breeding).
Although all those precautions had have sense in a time without our technology and interconnections. Today, there is always fruits the whole year, for the pigs, there will be raised corn and so on.
But traditions are very hard to defeat

We're just in the same boat. Cook fruit cake for months of preserved fruit when you have the most beautiful and bountiful fresh fruit outside? It's 36C but you spend all day with the oven on cooking roast meats and root veggies (which aren't in season and have to be flown into the country??)?

Slowly, we are changing Australian Christmas fare. In fact, I did not see a Christmas Cake or Pudding this year (YES! I hate them). But the fact this has taken 200 years is stupid. Much longer in South America I realise!!

Stephanie wrote: "Here is the the link to the website for Chet the dog! http://www.chetthedog.com/
Blake ..."

Here:
https://www.facebook.com/ChetTheDog/p...

Beautiful pic. Where is he?

Same thing in Uruguay. All the foods are so high in calories, absurd for such a hot weather. The roasted pork is generally eaten cold, though. It's roasted a few days before (hot anyways) and then eaten cold with salads. But a lot of nuts, chocolates, puddings, panettones, raisins, and other imported things are consumed.

My stepfather always says that you should eat pork on Dec 31-Jan 1 for luck, because is the only animal that digs towards, and not backwards. (not sure if I'm being clear. the pig digs using its nose to the front, different from other animals that use their legs and dig to their backs). This is supposed to be a positive thing starting the new year.
And my mom makes us eat 12 raisins at midnight, one with each chime, for good luck too.
There are other things not food related you can do at midnight, like tear all the old calendars, turn your underwear inside out, throw the contents of your drinking glass backwards over your head, or fill a bucket with water and throw it in the street (the water, not the bucket, although it happens). I don't think anyone in my family believes all of this brings good luck, but it's so funny. Everybody running into one another going in and out of the bathrooms and the front door, chocking with the raisins at the same time... Yep, great fun for free. That's my family. Good times...