And just like that! From 2010 to 2011...

This year... *ahem*... last year we spent New Year's Eve Brazilian style with our friends in Greenville. Like the Prieto family, our friends the Days keep one foot in America and one in Brazil, so we celebrated with churrasco (Brazilian bar-b-que) and all of the best of homestyle Brazilian cuisine.


New Year's Eve is the perfect time to play games under the Christmas tree. And eat cheerios, if you are 9 months old.


Our standard contribution to the meal is the feijoada (Brazilian black beans) and vinaigrette (lightly marinated vegetable salad), but this time we decided to go wild. We rounded up the forces and turned out plates of brigadeiros (Brazilian chocolate fudgy balls - recipe coming soon), which didn't even survive the evening. They are the perfect size for nibbling on while waiting for midnight.


Gigi is also perfect to nibble on. Who has softer cheeks, or cuter ears? I'm so grateful for a flexible baby who loves crowds but will also sleep at our friend's homes so that we can have a social life. As she slept we counted down while watching the ball drop in NYC, then hugged and kissed each other at the turn of the year.

It was a really simple New Year's Eve, but when all of the right people come together, simple is perfect.