Good grief, time flies. I really need to get past living from holiday to holiday, event to event, and meeting to meeting. It blurs all those good days in between!
We had a wonderful New Year’s Eve, celebrating not only the new year, but, of course, the birthdays of my mother, Gert Svarny, who welcomed her 81st year with perfect grace, and my husband, Caleb, who grumpily acknowledges his birthday each year. Of course, if a big deal was not made of it, I am sure he would be totally disappointed!!
So every year, I debate the great cake question….what kind of cakes this year? I settled on a cheesecake with a nut crust, enrobed in chocoate and served over a strawberry coulis, plus an incredibly dense chocolate cake with chocolate ganache. To tie them together, each had orange in them and were sprinkled with orange zest.
The chocolate cake was so heavy, (literally, I could not carry it with one hand) I was really afraid to cut into it and serve it. But, thank god, it was absolutely delicious. I believe I have found the perfect cake for the Chocolate Extravaganza!
As we get older, we joke about being able to stay awake until midnight! We have devised a schedule to help us out….a late dinner at 8 PM, socializing and drinking(!), then, started for the kids several years ago, we play our “traditional” New Year’s Bingo games with great prizes of things mom wants to get rid of!! At 11:45 things start to ball up….getting the champagne ready, watching the ball drop, toasting the new year in, running outside to watch the fireworks, coming back inside for a hearty rendition of Happy Birthday, eating cake and opening presents! By the time this is all done, it is usually about 1:30AM.
And so, with a great start for 2011, here’s hoping your year will be filled with happiness and prosperity. If not that, at least have some fun!
Unalaska From My Point of View 
Wow! Looks like fun was had by all. And, those pics of the sweets…MMmmmmmm!