3 Jan 2014

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE - RANDOM 5 FRIDAY

1. In view of our New Year's party, I did some last shopping bought paper streamers and some other little decorations. The rest of the day I spent with answering New Year wishes ! If all these wishes come true then I will be a lucky girl in 2014.



The next day I went over to Dominique to help her to prepare her living room for the party !  We had a lot of fun doing it, her little 3 year old granddaughter Lucy "helped" too, I think she had never seen that in her life !

2.


For the buffet we all had to bring one plate and our drinks. I prepared salmon sandwiches which I cut in triangles of course supervised by Arthur who fortunately had got his share of salmon before, so that I could work in peace ! I was quiet happy with the result. I had also bought a "Pain surprise" (litteraly translated Surprise Bread) a loaf of bread which had been emptied so that only the crust remains and which is then filled with all kinds of little sandwiches.

3.



At 8 pm, when everybody had arrived I quickly took a picture of the untouched buffet ! There was my "Surprise bread", a very yummy potatoe salad, a terrine of smoked trout (the white circle) slices of meatloaf and Hungarian/German potatoe pancakes which Ilona had prepared. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the delicious apple cake and the Tiramisu Chantal had made herself.



and here we are, all my friends Dominique,  Ilona, Chantal, Nicole and Marianne who is also German. We are all 70 to 76, except Dominique and Chantal ! For once Mr. G. joined the party and therefore I had asked to make a picture of us ... in memory !



Dominique lit the fire in the chimney and dog Charly and little Kiwi were happy to have such a lot of company. Of course they wandered from one person to the other in the hope that they also got some of the food. There was an other man too, a friend of Mr. G, the husband of Marianne. So they had to endure 7 chatting women, but from time to time they also managed to place a word !



Then came the moment where we did the Lead pouring Bleigiessen, a German New Year tradition. Everybody got a piece of lead in the shape of a clover leaf, anchor, etc, which was put in a special spoon, held over a candle and when it had melted the person with the spoon throw it into cold water. Ilona was fascinated by this game and we all tried to see what figure had come out, she had an abstract looking dolphin and I a bird with strange wings. Now we have to find out what that means. I don't remember what the others had. Mr. G. made raindrops !

At midnight we all lifted our glass of champagne and wished each other a happy New Year. Poor Charlie trembled like a leaf although the 9 of us tried to comfort him but he is so afraid of fireworks. Poor boy. Unfortunately no lap was big enough for him to use, but he tried !

At 2 am we were tired, and they all went home, Mr. G. and I helped Dominique to put the furniture in place, then we left too. What a nice New Year's Eve !

5. Now all the festivities are over and we can relax again. That's what I did the whole day, I just went to Dominique to put her pictures on my USB stick, then I was busy with my photos after having watched a nice crime story and a life series called "That's your history", where adopted children tried to find out their biological parents, sometimes with a disastrous result.




more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.



More participants here at A rural Journal.

25 comments:

  1. Great food, good company and two dogs. Your New Year party looks a lot of fun. No sign of pretty Lucy at midnight?

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  2. What a fun and fact filled post along with great photos, I love to learn about the traditions of others. It sounds like a fabulous way to spend a New Year's Eve and you've gorgeous dogs and cats...:-).

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  3. I haven't seen pain surprise before, but I like the idea. I guess the party did not start too early.

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  4. A fun post to read...the food all looks scrumptious and the lead game was interesting to read about!

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  5. Looks like a fun time had by all Gattina!!

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  6. What a wonderful New Year celebration! Looks like a lovely bunch of friends and some great memories made. Happy New Year!

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  7. All that food looks so yummy! Love the surprise bread.

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  8. not sure what color you would call it pink, magenta or what? but any who it looks great on you. i love it!! sweet post today. have a lovely day.

    if you are having cold weather like we are in VA. you stay warm. ( :

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  9. oh everything looks so festive! what a fun time!

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  10. That was an unbelievable feast. Oh gee, I wish I had been invited but guess the flight over wasn't possible. hehe.

    Your bird with the strange wings means that you are going to travel to interesting and unusual places... well, that's my take on it!

    Happy new Year.

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  11. Oh my gosh that is one big spread of food, it looked and sounded delicious. How cool that you were able to spend New Years Eve with so many of your good friends.
    I agree though that getting back to "normal" is nice too.

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  12. It sounds like you had a fantastic time. And seven women to two men? Wow, those are odds alright! Hope they didn't mind all that chattering too much. It must have been like a henhouse!

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  13. ...so enjoyed reading about and viewing your festive celebration! I think I fell asleep at 9:30 pm -- such a party pooper! :)

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  14. What an adorable little helper! Looks like a good time was had by all!
    Visiting from Random 5 Friday.

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  15. I like the idea of everyone contributing to the party taking some of the pressure off the host.

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  16. Seems like you had an awful lot of fun.
    It's nice when you can make entertaining so easy and simple.
    Just a bunch of friends getting together and hangin to meet the new year.

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  17. What a marvelous NewYear party you had! I didn't know the traditional german game you did! Sounds very funny!

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  18. What a great party. Wonderful food, good friends, what could be better! You and Mr G look so great...that picture is definitely a keeper. Very interesting to learn of that German tradition. Happy New Year to you!

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  19. You lasted until 2 a.m. and then cleaned up? Wow, you did much, much better than me. Looks like you had a wonderful time! Nice to finally get a look at Mr. G. :)

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  20. That was quite a New Years celebration. I barely made it to 11pm!

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  21. Your NYE party sounds great. We stayed home and watched The Hobbit with our son. He loved it. Since it was raining, it was nice that we could stay at home and had nowhere to go. Happy new year.

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  22. Wow, what a party! I like the tradition of Bleigiessen. Sounds fun.

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  23. What a fun evening with such lovely food and activities. I've never heard of Pain surprise - I will try that the next time I need to bring something savory to a party. Arthur was lucky to be there to supervise and taste-test!

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  24. It looks like it was a wonderful time!

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  25. It looks like it was a wonderful time!

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