The Abundant Table (How We Said "Hello" to 2012)

Like any Filipino household, we said "Hello to 2012!" with table laden with food and fruits.  Like last year, I cooked Ham and Noodles, had a dessert dish, wine and fruits.  The only difference for this NY's was I baked a bigger piece of ham (last year we had half a leg of ham) and had my first try at cooking Biko and Pancit Canton.

 
Thank God, the food had a great turnout.  The baked Ham was juicier and tastier compared to the first one I made.  The Pancit Canton, to me was average, but the Husband enjoyed it. 

I was nervous about cooking Biko but was not able to buy from Filipino shops so I decided to do it myself since we had glutinous rice at home that I wanted to get rid of.  It was surprisingly good.  I was able to replicate the taste of Biko sold in Filipino shops.  

I especially bought a few macarons from Adriano Zumbo's cafe because I love them and they're round.  In Filipino homes, putting round food and fruits on the table symbolizes prosperity.   



Fruits were abundant as I went overboard.  The tradition was to have at least 12 fruits.  But I think we have at least 20 kinds!  I didn't keep count and I was confident in buying them because I got myself a Juicer for Christmas (Thank you, Husband!)

My mom and mother-in-law also advised me to light up seven coloured candles.  The colours should be red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple and pink.  According to them, each colour symbolizes an aspect of our lives BUT I forgot what they were.  In the Philippines, one can buy these multi-coloured candles which has the same size and length.  Since we don't have them here in Sydney, I improvised and didn't really care about lengths or sizes.  I like lighting candles anyway.  For me, lighting candles during New Year's symbolizes a more enlightened year ahead.  I arranged the candles as pretty as I could and then placed it near our Holy Family statue.  Nearby was a bowl of rice with coin, another suggestion of my mom, for prosperity.

At the stroke of midnight, we kissed and hugged as we greeted each other, watched the Sydney fireworks on TV and then prayed in front of the Holy Family.

I've recently opened an account with blipfoto which is a daily photo journal.  Once a member, you are able to publish a photo a day.  Since I cannot blog everyday but always want to document the things I'm grateful for everyday, I'm using my blipfoto account as my gratitude journal.


Let me share with you one of my entries where I shared my thoughts via my blipfoto entitled "A Grateful Life"

This was our table when we welcomed 2012. Our parents have taught us the tradition of having a table laden with fruits and food during New Year's. According to them, this invites prosperity for the whole year.  

On New Year's, I felt very grateful for the past year of abundance and blessings. I was also very grateful for 2012 being more prosperous and abundant. Some days we may have dark clouds hovering over us but we always come home to a place where we have enough. Not just food, but with everything we need.  

Thank you God, thank you Universe for always making sure we have enough of what we need and more.