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Two New Year's Eve celebrations stand out in my mind; The Millennium
Celebration in Thailand, when the beautiful Thai Princess rode a costumed
elephant through the revelers, and this year, when we shared a festive
and very special dinner and celebration with Pepe Calero and his family
in Lanzarote.
Don and Lois
Babson and Charlie and I drove to Pepe's house about nine in the evening.
We entered the beautiful home through the torch lighted patio.
Their house
overlooks the city of Arricefe and throughout the evening intermittent
fireworks lit up the sky. That night it was also lightning. Lightning
is so rare in the Canary Islands
that the children of the family were fascinated watching it dance
across the heavens.
The
evening was filled with laughter, music and dancing.
Meli', Pepe's wife, had planned
and executed an evening so perfect that Martha Stewart would be envious.
Besides the hors d'o euvres
which
were passed frequently
by the staff,
she had
cooked a multi- course
dinner where
we were
all seated by
place card
arrangement.
Fresh flowers
graced the tables and were
placed
throughout the house. We didn't finish dinner until almost midnight.
Bags
were
handed to each
guest with noisemakers, streamers, hats and masks. Also in the bag
was a box of twelve grapes.
Pepe
explained that as we
counted down to midnight
with a gong sounding off the seconds, we
should eat a grape for each gong and make a wish on each grape. I
like this tradition, and I think
we will
incorporate
it into our celebrations in the future.
At midnight Meli's
surprise
for Pepe was set off and
the fireworks
began. Jose Juan and Daniel knew about
this but their father did not and he was surprised and delighted.
We danced, enjoyed the balmy
night which was unseasonably cool for Lanzarote. Just after
midnight it
rained. Rain
is so rare in the Canaries that it must be a good omen for the
coming year.
It was so
much fun watching
a beautiful family
celebrate the coming of a new year together.
All the generations were present from Grandmother through
the youngest
child. We were embraced
with
warmth, and the hospitality of their welcome will always be remembered.
It
was a wonderful experience for us four Americans to be enfolded into
a multi-national celebration of the coming
year on a very
intimate friendly level.
We feel
very special to have been included, thank you Pepe and Meli . . .
until we meet again.
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