New Year's and Other Things
How was everyone's New Year? I hope everyone had a nice time. :D
Mine was quiet. My aunt and cousin didn't come over this year becuase my aunt was sick with the flu... :'( Maybe I'll see them for Easter.
I baked a cake. A special cake for New Year's. My mom always called it "Santa Claus Pie" but it's really "Vasilopita" or "Basil Pie" after the saint who is similar to Santa Claus. He's basically Father Christmas in Greece (and probably some other European countries as well.)
This was a box cake since my mom was originally going to bake it and she's not a baker. I ended up making almost the entire thing because my mom didn't want to use the Kitchen-Aid mixer to mix the batter becuase it would get dirty. It's not that hard to clean! >:( I made it a little different than the usual. I made two smaller layers of lemon cake (with a little added orange extract) because I was too lazy to find the big cake pan and I put a layer of orange buttercream inbetween the layers and dusted the top with powdered sugar as is tradition. I let my mom decorate it with the year in roasted almond slivers. She put the year 20011! *facepalm* The whole thing took a little over an hour from start to finish. Very quick cake and it was oh so delicious.
Inside the cake (or for some people bread) you bake a coin inside it. Shortly after midnight or right at midnight it is ceremoniously cut and distributed to those present. The first piece goes to St. Basil/Santa Claus/Jesus. (In our family it goes to Jesus.) The second piece goes to the house. The next goes to the head of the house, my mom's bf in our case, and then to everyone else in order according to who lives there and age. The oldest person who lives there would be next with the youngest guest being last. The one who gets the coin is supposed to be lucky for the year and in my family would recieve $100.
This year (or the year 20011) the house got the coin! Which means the whole household is supposed to be lucky this year (or in 20011 if it's still around. XD)
This made my mom's bf very happy and optimistic. No temper tantrums this year. I'm so glad the house got the coin.
We have a couple other Greek New Year's traditions but this one is my favorite becuase it tastes good. :9
What sort of traditions do you guys have for New Year's? I'm curious.
I also pulled of Master of Illusion to give it a try and we all played it. :)
The tricks were indeed sorcery! But I figured some of them out the day after. XD
On New Year's Eve I received a small package and it contained.....
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~~~~~~!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3
I thought it would arrive together with the whole set! :D
Best New Year's Eve ever! I can't wait until the whole Music Box arrives!!! AHHHHH!!
Since it's a rare CD I thought I'd share it with you guys. :3
DOWNLOAD [MP3+Scans] (122 MB)
(I'll be taking this down next Friday 1/14 so download it soon if you want it!)
All the tracks are either the Main Titles or End Credits of each of the movies Tim Burton and Danny Elfman worked on in chronological order with the first track being a music box medley of all the themes as heard on the website. The only brand new track.
With the arrival of that I decided it's probably a good time to sort through my music collection since my bro is here with his computer to help me. I ripped and scanned at least 50 albums so far and I processed about 20 or so older ones I had sitting on my external hard drive and added them to my ipod. New old music to listen to! Yay! :D
My brother and I also beat Donkey Kong Country Returns. Well.... he played most of it while I tried each level and gave up on the majority of them while beating a handful of them. I will probably make a post about what I thought of it later.
I also have been knitting a bit and right now the Doctor Who scarf is....
I just started the biggest section. 46 rows of solid green. Ughhh....
Mine was quiet. My aunt and cousin didn't come over this year becuase my aunt was sick with the flu... :'( Maybe I'll see them for Easter.
I baked a cake. A special cake for New Year's. My mom always called it "Santa Claus Pie" but it's really "Vasilopita" or "Basil Pie" after the saint who is similar to Santa Claus. He's basically Father Christmas in Greece (and probably some other European countries as well.)
This was a box cake since my mom was originally going to bake it and she's not a baker. I ended up making almost the entire thing because my mom didn't want to use the Kitchen-Aid mixer to mix the batter becuase it would get dirty. It's not that hard to clean! >:( I made it a little different than the usual. I made two smaller layers of lemon cake (with a little added orange extract) because I was too lazy to find the big cake pan and I put a layer of orange buttercream inbetween the layers and dusted the top with powdered sugar as is tradition. I let my mom decorate it with the year in roasted almond slivers. She put the year 20011! *facepalm* The whole thing took a little over an hour from start to finish. Very quick cake and it was oh so delicious.
Inside the cake (or for some people bread) you bake a coin inside it. Shortly after midnight or right at midnight it is ceremoniously cut and distributed to those present. The first piece goes to St. Basil/Santa Claus/Jesus. (In our family it goes to Jesus.) The second piece goes to the house. The next goes to the head of the house, my mom's bf in our case, and then to everyone else in order according to who lives there and age. The oldest person who lives there would be next with the youngest guest being last. The one who gets the coin is supposed to be lucky for the year and in my family would recieve $100.
This year (or the year 20011) the house got the coin! Which means the whole household is supposed to be lucky this year (or in 20011 if it's still around. XD)
This made my mom's bf very happy and optimistic. No temper tantrums this year. I'm so glad the house got the coin.
We have a couple other Greek New Year's traditions but this one is my favorite becuase it tastes good. :9
What sort of traditions do you guys have for New Year's? I'm curious.
I also pulled of Master of Illusion to give it a try and we all played it. :)
The tricks were indeed sorcery! But I figured some of them out the day after. XD
On New Year's Eve I received a small package and it contained.....
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~~~~~~!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3
I thought it would arrive together with the whole set! :D
Best New Year's Eve ever! I can't wait until the whole Music Box arrives!!! AHHHHH!!
Since it's a rare CD I thought I'd share it with you guys. :3
DOWNLOAD [MP3+Scans] (122 MB)
(I'll be taking this down next Friday 1/14 so download it soon if you want it!)
All the tracks are either the Main Titles or End Credits of each of the movies Tim Burton and Danny Elfman worked on in chronological order with the first track being a music box medley of all the themes as heard on the website. The only brand new track.
With the arrival of that I decided it's probably a good time to sort through my music collection since my bro is here with his computer to help me. I ripped and scanned at least 50 albums so far and I processed about 20 or so older ones I had sitting on my external hard drive and added them to my ipod. New old music to listen to! Yay! :D
My brother and I also beat Donkey Kong Country Returns. Well.... he played most of it while I tried each level and gave up on the majority of them while beating a handful of them. I will probably make a post about what I thought of it later.
I also have been knitting a bit and right now the Doctor Who scarf is....
I just started the biggest section. 46 rows of solid green. Ughhh....