New Year's celebrations around the world

Tired of the same old ball dropping, champagne toast, auld lang syne at midnight? Try one of these new year's traditions from around the world.

Thai celebration: The New Year celebrations start by people chasing each other down the street with buckets of water. This is also a day for good deeds and karama-polishing acts.

Swedish celebration: Go to church, go to smorgasbords and drink spicy glogg.

Denmark: Throw broken dishes at your friend's doors. Old dishes are saved year around to throw them at the homes where their friends live on New Years Eve. Many broken dishes were a symbol that you have many friends.

Portugese and Spanish celebrations: pick and eat twelve grapes from a bunch as the clock strikes twelve on New Year's Eve. This is done to ensure twelve happy months in the coming year. Sometimes the grapes are washed down with wine.

Netherlands: burn your Christmas tree in a street bonfire.

Japanese celebration: Hang a rope of straw across the front of your house to keep out evil spirits, the straw stands for happiness and good luck. When the New Year begins, the Japanese people begin to laugh, and this is supposed to bring them good luck in the New Year.

Korean: on New Year's day wear new clothing. This symbolizes a fresh beginning.

Celebrating the New Year

How it all began......

The celebration of the new year is the oldest of all holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonian New Year began with the first New Moon (actually the first visible cresent) after the Vernal Equinox (first day of spring). The Babylonian new year celebration lasted for eleven days!

The beginning of spring is a logical time to start a new year. It is the season of rebirth, of planting new crops, and of blossoming. January 1, on the other hand, has no astronomical nor agricultural significance. It is purely arbitrary.

January 1st officially became the first day of a new year in 46 B.C. when Julius Caesar established the Julian Calendar.

The tradition of New Year's resolutions also started with the ancient Babylonians. The early Babylonian's resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment in order to start the new year off with a clean slate.

Christmas Cookie Exchange

This holiday season saw our 7th annual Christmas cookie exchange.

These are all that are left!

24 women

1728 cookies

24 gifts exchanged

An evening of festivities with good friends, old and new.

Two for Tuesday

tis the season for snowman jokes.

And the survey says.......

Thanks to all who took the survey and helped with
my research on Beauty and the American Woman.
There were over 200 respondents.
The age of the respondents ranged from 18 to 78.
The results were significant to the research.
As promised, here are the results.

Looking for a good book?

For all you readers out there!
I came across a cool site.
Enter a book you like and the site will analyze their database of real readers' favorite books (over 20,000 and growing) to suggest what you could read next.
You can register and list your own favorites as well.

What Should I Read Next?

Happy Lazy Saturday

Lazy: averse or disinclined to work, activity, or exertion; indolent.









You can't teach people to be lazy, either they have it or they don't
Dagwood Bumstead

This holiday season give the gift of love.......

and it's not jewelry!













Heifer is a wonderful organization that helps people throughout the world by creating a chain of giving that can touch thousands of lives.Their mission is to work with communities around the world to end hunger and poverty and care for the earth.

My friend Richard is trying to raise enough funding to buy a Heifer International Ark. In just over a week he is at 38% of his goal. If you can find it in your heart to contribute even $5.00, every dollar helps.

An Ark is an extraordinary gift and an opportunity to help change the world. You can contribute toward ducks, geese, chicks, bees, trees, or even a llama or two.

Click HERE and see how easy it is to make difference.

Thanks!

Two Optical Illusions for Tuesday

Focus on the image below
Stare at the 4 dots in the middle for 30 seconds.
Then look at up at the ceiling (blank space).
What do you see?















Stare at the black dot in the circle below for at least a minute.
What happens to the gray fog around it?

Body Painting

As with the fish faces below, very cool body painting.

Sleepy head wakes up

Kate, Honey Bear, and Grover