Noche Vieja

¡Feliz Año!

Noche Vieja, el 31 de diciembre, has always been a family affair for me. What we used to do and what we now do with Sofía and what we will do in the coming years will be different. So my husband and I spent a while thinking about how we could start our traditions that would make sense keeping in mind our old traditions and what would be our new traditions.


We, particularly me, do not like to be out on the roads AT ALL on Noche Vieja. My husband’s aunt always has the familia to her house for a huge reunión, but when she moved over an hour away, we decided that we weren’t into making the drive or spending the night. So we decided that we needed to establish something of our own for us, Sofía, her future friends, and anyone else who may want to participate.
We decided on a fiesta. A Noche Vieja Fiesta where we make a bunch of different pizzas and crostadas for desserts. It’s fun, everyone can participate at any age and it’s yummy!! (not to mention easy clean-up).

We can still do our regular Noche Vieja jazz as always, which is uniquely Latino and entertaining. One is to burn an Año Viejo, the second is to walk around the block with a suitcase and the third is to eat grapes at the toll of Midnight. The Año Viejo is a paper doll of some sort that is burnt to symbolize the eviction of all the bad from the previous year. The jaunt around the block is to bring good luck in the form of trips somewhere. I must confess that this year we did NOT do these two things for Noche Vieja. We got rid of our old grill and need to buy a new one, thus, there is no place to actually burn the Año Viejo and I don’t think that my neighbors would understand us burning it in the street like they do in Colombia. The suitcase thing…..I JUST PLAIN FORGOT!!! I was running around doing the other party things that it escaped me to take Sofía for a stroll before bed. She would have LOVED it. We also decided that between pizza eating and crostada crunching, we would play board games while waiting for the ole ball to drop. We don’t usually play games but thought it might be a fun thing to start…and it really was!! My husband and I played an electronic version of the game LIFE (Sofía was faaaaasssst asleep!)

Now that we have actually established what we want to happen in our family Noche Vieja Fiesta, I think it will be easier come next year…..not so much brain power getting used up so less chance of forgetting everything!! We had a blast at our Noche Vieja Fiesta…so if you are in town next year, you are welcome to join us!! Just don’t forget your suitcase!

¡Feliz Año!