Happy New Year!

 Happy New Year!  In Spain the new year tradition requires a lot of Grapes (Uvas)  Each person needs 12 grapes and you are suppose to eat one grape each time the bell rings for the last 12 seconds of the year counting down to the stroke of midnight.  They sale grapes in cute little packages with 12 grapes, they serve 12 grapes at restaurants all over Spain for people at midnight.  It is tradition.
For our family I bought a large package of grapes and each of us just took 12.  The lady that gave us the information on the tradition told us that is really can be hard and that the children would have a hard time doing it.  (she was right) At first you don't believe it because you think it is 12 grapes how hard is that.  Well I ended up making it harder because the grapes we had were grapes with seeds in them.  It really was fun though.  We watched the clock strike 12, they have a countdown for the 12 grapes, and most of us were able to finish in time.  (to be totally honest we didn't stay up until midnight Spain time.  We watched last years countdown on the internet then we were up early enough the next morning to be awake for the time that Iowa would be ringing in the new year)
It was a fun tradition and I think we will continue it for years to come.