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| Traditional Sri Lankan New Year's Breakfast |
Happy New Year, everyone. May 2017 be filled with blessings, peace, good health, happiness, and prosperity to all.
Daughter and I stayed up on New Year's Eve to greet the New Year. We counted down as we watched the Times Square ball drop on TV and toasted the New Year with sparkling apple cider. Then, I made the traditional milkrice and we had that and a piece of the love cake we made earlier in the evening (post on the love cake to follow). Unfortunately, I discovered that the love cake didn't taste as good to me anymore, although it smelled as good as it usually does! Daughter, however, said it was every bit as good as she remembers it being.
I woke up relatively early this morning, fed Dancer, turned off the porch lights and went back to sleep! Later, my aunt and cousin called to wish me for the New Year.
A little while later, the phone rang again and my friend's daughter announced, "We're here!". She and her dad had brought us the above platter of traditional Sri Lankan New Year's breakfast: squares of milk rice, small containers of the spicy sambol to eat with the milkrice, bananas, pieces of milk toffee, and an assortment of oil cakes: konde kavum, mung kavum, kalu dodol, and the rosettes we call "kokis" (a Dutch word meaning cookies, from the time when Sri Lanka was colonized by the Dutch). It's the same platter in which I took the Christmas gingerbread cookies to my friend. I guess I hadn't made it clear to her that the platter was part of my gift to her!
Daughter and I feasted on the milkrice and other items for brunch and throughout the day. Again, I was disappointed by my disability to taste the Sri Lankan sweets. It's healthier for me, of course, because I am not tempted to eat sweets since they don't taste as good to me, but disappointing, nevertheless.
Daughter and I had been invited to an aunt's house to her annual New Year's Day luncheon, and I had been intending to attend, but I decided not to go, after all. I just felt like staying home and relaxing, instead of getting dressed up and driving an hour each way. I called my aunt and made my excuses and she was very understanding.
I did a load of laundry, later in the afternoon, while daughter tidied and dusted the living room for me. Later, she made another batch of emoji mugs to be given as gifts (and one for me).
One of my cousins came over after she returned from Aunt's New Year's Day lunch, with a gift for me from a mutual friend. I gave her a piece of love cake and some of the Sri Lankan sweets to take home with her. Still later, one of daughter's friends stopped by and we sent several pieces of love cake home with him to share with his parents and sister.
Daughter is packing her suitcase, now; she flies back to Berkeley tomorrow afternoon. I shall miss her. I have enjoyed having her home for the past 10 days. But we will video chat daily and I shall look forward to her next visit, which is planned for March for her birthday.
Today, I am grateful for:
- Being able to greet another New Year with my daughter
- A sunny day after the rain we had on New Year's Eve
- My friend sending us New Year's Day breakfast
- Aunt's invitation to New Year's Day lunch, even if I chose to decline it
- New Year's greetings and well wishes from friends, including my blog friends, and family.
I will be posting my New Year's goals and an update on my December Goals, etc., later in the week.
I hope you all had a lovely New Year's Day. Thank you for all your friendship and support during the past year. Wish everyone the best in 2017.
Glad you got to spend time with your daughter. I've been enjoying my time with my daughter before she leaves. Today we're all getting together - all three 'kids', MIL, FIL and a couple of other relatives - to have tacos and say goodbye.
ReplyDeleteOh, that's nice that the whole family is gathering to have a send-off for your daughter! It's going to be an adventure for both your daughter and you, a new chapter in your lives. Please tell your daughter that I wish her all the best.
DeleteI'm disappointed for you too, those look absolutely delicious. I need to look away because sweets taste TOO good for me, which is a curse in itself. The grass is always greener on the other side, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI hope you have a lovely week, Bless, and that your daughter made it back to Berkeley safely.
Thank you, Nathalie. I really shouldn't be eating sweets, so, in a way, it is a good thing I don't have the taste for them anymore. Fresh fruits taste good, so I'll be having more fruit-based desserts, instead. :)
DeleteDaughter will be leaving a bit later this afternoon.
I hope you, too, have a lovely week and a nice start to your new year. :)
What a lovely way to start the New Year with friends dropping by with a breakfast platter. I don't think I'd have wanted to drive for an hour both ways either, although over here you can be in the car for that amount of time and have only gone 10 miles, traffic can be so bad. It sounds like you and DD had a very relaxing start to 2017. Long may it continue :) xx
ReplyDeleteIt was a lovely start to the new year. :) Most of the time, I am fine with driving longer distances; just that, right now, after my fall and after hearing that a member of the extended family had a blackout while driving and met with a 4-car accident recently, I feel a bit worried about driving!
DeleteWhat a beautiful breakfast platter!
ReplyDeleteWishing you the best for the new year!
Thank you, Anne. Hope your new year is off to a good start, too. :)
DeleteHappy New Year, Bless! Best wishes for an awesome 2017!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Carolyn. Wish you and yours the same!
DeleteI'm really glad you had a good New Year and your breakfast sounds AMAZING! x
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lyssa. Yes, it was a lovely breakfast, and I was able to share some of the sweets with a friend who visited, sending them home with her. :)
DeleteOnce again I have enjoyed seeing and hearing about the different foods that are traditional for you. They look wonderful.
ReplyDeleteWe were invited to friends on Jan 1st for an afternoon party and my friend had a marvellous buffet, including many gluten free baked goods (she is GF intolerant). There were savoury and sweet items, including traditional English Christmas cake. She has a lot of experience with this cooking and has given me some tips, also passed on a spare copy of a GF magazine with some good recipes. I shall continue to experiment for when DS and family come again!
Bushlady
I am glad you got to spend a nice afternoon at your friend's New Year gathering and were able to try several GF dishes. How nice to receive the spare copy of the magazine with new recipes to try! We use a lot of rice and rice flour in our cooking; can rice flour be substituted for wheat flour for GF cooking?
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