Another New Year's Eve...

A day after our nonstop road trip from Batangas to Tagaytay, it is time to stay home and wait for the big night. Hello Earth! It’s New Year’s Eve!

Like last year, we have assortment of foods on our table to welcome the New Year.

To our elders, the bountiful of round fruits would definitely signify prosperity all throughout the year. For me, those tradition plus hard work would be the perfect combination.

The usual my Nanay would be very busy cooking home treats.

This time, I was able to capture her busy hands doing buchi, which is made from flour and sweetened mongo.

And her finished product were like this.

Nanay also made few pieces of “palutang” or the one we call “palitaw” here in Manila.

Nanay’s final cooking were the old style sotanghon with chicken meat in fresh broth plus sotanghon pansit with mixed veggies...

My sister, Che made this lasagna. I think it’s her second time to bake something like this. Though she was not able to perfect the béchamel sauce (na-late kase ang Quickmelt ni Irish…), the taste would definitely be something she can be proud of (she had culinary talents…naks!)

This year I salute the boys for grilling a perfect pork barbeque. Safe to eat this time without worrying about colon cancer…hehehe.

Aside from setting this special cutlery, which by the way is used only during New Year...guess what else do I prepare?

Uhm, these mouth-watering plates was my creation.

And this Choco Overload from Conti’s definitely completes our set-up.

In between these preparations, we keep ourselves busy with photo shoot and going online to keep us awake until midnight.

So what else made our New Year celebration different from last year?

We invited our house helper family to celebrate with us. Since, Ate Eva did not go home for the event we told her to bring her kids. She had nine kids, and five of them went to our house while the remaining four stayed with her relatives. It was something we really wanted for New Year, a merrier family!

Arman and Che were fanatics of fireworks and firecrackers so every year they would really spend a lot for this alone.

As the countdown started, fireworks were lighted from each house.

Sam loves sparkles and so does Ate Eva’s kids.

Finally, after the welcoming 2010 with a big bang we all had a wonderful media noche. Before I went to bed, I thank the Lord for the year that past and for the year, we all had now.

Nine days ago another countdown had started, may all of us be blessed!

Let me all wish you now a Happy and Prosperous New Year!