New Years.....

I spent New Years Eve with my brothers Trevor and Micah. We bough sparklers and firecrackers in the afternoon then went home. As we were walking around we saw a lot of yellow items for sale. This is a Peruvian tradition. Yellow means good luck so on New Year’s you are supposed to wear yellow underwear, hats and more. Other strange traditions I have heard of are…..if you want to travel in the new year, you must pack a suitcase and run around the block with it at midnight. Or, people create a life-size doll/figure with hay and clothes, basically like a scarecrow. Then, at midnight, you burn it in the street as a symbol of burning off the old year.

So that night after the market, we did some sparklers and a couple firecrackers in the early evening. Then Trevor and I made ranch crackers. It was simple and easy, you can check out the recipie at: http://thehandicappedkitchen.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/new-year-ranch-crackers/. We used one of the packets of ranch seasoning that I brought back from the states. With the crackers, we ate the Elk Sausage a friend had mailed me along with a can of cheese whiz I brought back as a joke. It was perfect snack food for New Year’s Eve. After the snacks were made, ranch crackers, elk summer sausage, canned cheese, and homemade kettle corn, we sat down and watched a movie. A few minutes before midnight we went up to the roof to watch the fireworks and it was a spectacular sight! There were fireworks surrounding us, people shooting them off from their streets and houses all over the city of 1.5 million people! I also saw two muñecas (dolls) being burned in the street by our house.

We celebrated with hugs, sparklers and more firecrackers! It was a simple yet fun evening!