Our annual New Year’s Day tradition: walk then lunch at our local. Had it been any colder, we would’ve ditched the walk and gone straight for the warmth and refreshments.
Category: New Year
Our Hogmanay Tradition
Installed VPN on the TV so we can ring in the New Year with TVE 1 (Spanish TV) at 5:00 pm Central Time, which is midnight in Spain. New this year: optional/necessary automatically generated English subtitles. Our home is filled with the wonderful aroma of sofrito, the base of the paella I’ll finish cooking once it’s midnight in Madrid.
Another Year
Our January 1st ritual: a walk followed by a pub lunch. (The empty bottle is from last night, a particularly fine Champagne, gifted by friends some time ago for my 70th birthday.)
Countdown to Midnight in Madrid
Walked on fresh snow to Coastal Seafoods to pick up shrimp for paella for dinner, but when I saw this line, frozen shrimp from Trader’s suddenly became acceptable. As is our custom, I’ve cued up RTVE Madrid to stream to our TV to celebrate 2024 at midnight Madrid time, 5:00 pm Central.
The Annual Replacement of the Spices
Replaced spices older than (arbitrarily) 15 months for a total of about $8. Freshness is optimized by buying whole spices in small quantities.
Getting New Year’s Done
(Virtually) relocated to Madrid to celebrate the arrival of 2023 at 5:00 pm Central, an annual tradition for us. Set up a VPN to Spain’s RTVE 1, a national public TV channel. With that done, made our traditional paella.
Seeing in the New Year with Seafood
On today’s walk I was on a mission: buy ingredients for our traditional New Year’s Eve paella. Coastal Seafoods, hidden in an industrial area, sells the best seafood in town. It was hopping, so I took a numbered ticket and browsed while fifteen customers ahead of me got served.
Jigsaw Puzzle
Dwight’s mom is staying with us for New Year’s. Set up a jigsaw puzzle that’s guaranteed to become an obsession.
New Year’s Day Tradition
Our New Year’s Day tradition is a long walk and a bar lunch. With subzero weather all day we achieved one out of two. Maxwell’s is our local, a chilly two-block walk.
New Year’s Paella
Our annual tradition: celebrated the new year in Madrid at 5:00 p.m. Central then made paella.