This New Year’s Eve was one of the most joyous and memorable we’ve had. Tynan and Elena (and the kids, Alexander and Paula) hosted us at their house, along with their dear old friend Jim.
Elena, from Bilbao, cooked her traditional fish soup, the only fish soup I have ever liked. It’s unbelievably good. Elena also served an excellent meat/potato pie (because Tynan was having a craving). And there was a feast of tapas before dinner.
Elena was working in the kitchen when we arrived and greeted us in an elegant (not) Fuengirola-style (definitely) outfit.
Tynan had a beautiful fire burning in the fireplace — on the TV screen. He briefly changed it to Darth Vader’s funeral pyre, which apparently burns for five hours. But we only lasted five minutes before begging him to change it back.
After dinner, and before the countdown to midnight and the traditional consuming of 12 grapes to bring good luck in the New Year, San Geraldo led us in a rousing rendition of “The 12 Days of Christmas.”
We then turned off the “fireplace” to join in the television countdown. One of the presenters created quite a stir with her bizarre get-up. She was all over the newspapers on New Year’s Day — after being all over on New Year’s Eve. It would have worked much better had her co-presenter worn something similar (well, maybe not). (Click the pictures to see them in all their glory.)
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| WE MADE THE SAME FACE. |
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| PAULA DOESN’T KNOW I MANAGED TO GET A PICTURE. (DON’T TELL.) |
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| I SUCCESSFULLY DOWNED ALL 12 GRAPES. |
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| JUDY NEEDED SMALLER GRAPES (OR A BIGGER MOUTH). |
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| AND THERE’S SAN GERALDO AND HIS HEAVENLY GLOW. (REALLY THE GOLDEN GLOW OF THE FIVE RINGS.) |
Since I accidentally deleted my video of our final verse (dammit),
here’s another non-traditional rendition of the song.
