New Year Feast

Happy New Year, everyone!!!  How did your celebration go?  =)

Here at our home (my side of the family), we no longer strictly observe the Media Noche (Midnight Feast), where families gather together at the stroke of midnight to welcome the New Year and feast on lots of food.  For several years,  we have been having this feast at dinner time (instead of midnight), so we won’t be sleeping on full stomachs hehe.   Once the clock strikes 12, we say our prayer of thanks and eat 12 pieces of grapes (for luck, I guess).   We also go out to greet our neighbors a Happy New Year and watch the fireworks (we could see the Ayala fireworks from our street).

This year’s New Year Feast was exceptionally memorable for me because AJ and I prepared the 2 pasta dishes that were served during the pre-Media Noche dinner:

My Bacon and Mushroom Pesto…

… and Creamy Beef Spaghetti (my dad’s favorite):

This Pork Hamonado was ordered from my mom’s suki at the palengke and has been a staple in our pre-Media Noche dinner for quite some time now.  It’s like Christmas Ham but with sausages inside.   Also, the pork meat is chunkier.   It’s best eaten with loaf bread or as a side dish to your pasta:

My brother sponsored the pizzas for the night – White and Deluxe Pizza from Brooklyn Pizza:

Our favorite Biko (rice cake with caramel toppings): 

It was a very hearty meal, and I am very pleased to see my 1-year old nephew, Liam, eating my pesto pasta too!

Liam, by the way, kept us awake that night with his cute antics and running around that rivals that of an Energizer Bunny (hehe!).   Here he is pointing at the telly which has a baby channel on:

Time for a little firework!   I received firecracker fountains as Christmas gift, and Liam bravely watched the spray of sparks!  No crying at all!

Here’s our little firecracker show:

So sorry for the very small shot of the fountain, I was actually the one afraid of them firecrackers so I took this shot from inside our gate haha!

And that’s how we welcomed the new year, folks!  A rather simple celebration but what’s important was that we’re all together as a family to welcome the new year  =)