Welcoming New Year 2007 at Starlight Tower
On December 31st 2006 Evangelos and I were happy to be at our
ninth floor corner unit condo of Starlight Tower St Pete Beach in sunny and
warm Florida, away from the cold North East weather of New Hampshire.
The occasion was special because a few days ago our 6 month old
granddaughter Nina arrived (for first time ever at Starlight Tower) with her
parents and not only we would have a nice short vacation with her but as
added bonus we would have the pleasure of welcoming the New Year 2007
together.
Morning of December 31st: Nina, parents and grandparents having fun under the warm Florida sun in
Starlight's pool deck and background the Silver Sands while the North East
suffered a major Arctic cold attack!
So to celebrate the coming of the New Year we invited some good friends
Starlight owners present and past who had also been at Demetra's and Bob's
wedding in Chicago the year before who were anxious to meet the new baby.
It was a happy gathering with a lot of spirit and traditional good Greek
food and I am happy to share some pictures with you.
The gathering started at 8:30 pm with hot and cold appetizers, red and
white wine displayed in three small tables and included Guacamole
spread, Taramosalata (Greek meze made out of tarama -the salted and
cured roe of the carp- that is mixed with lemon juice, onions, garlic, and
olive oil and the overall color is pink and is eaten with bread, crackers or
raw vegetables), French onion dip, Skordalia (Greek potato and
garlic dip), assortment of dipping crackers and hot bite size
triangles of Greek Spinach pies.
To accommodate all our guests for a comfortable sit down dinner we expanded
our dinning room by adding an extra table as you see in the above photo only
our "guest of honor" was in her bedroom and blissfully abandoned in
Morpheus
arms!
Dinner started with Chicken
Avgolemono
Soup followed by Greek salad and the main course was
Classic Greek Roasted Leg of Lamb with Potatoes,
plus
Pastitsio
and
Tyropita.
Then dessert time came with a Chocolate Fountain to everyone's delight and
an array of cut fresh fruits and dry goods to be dipped in the silky rich chocolate,
accompanied by a variety of liquors.
Just before midnight on New Years Eve, we wore our funny hats, distributed
noise makers to all guests and watched on TV the countdown from the Big
Apple.
The Cutting of Vasilopita
We celebrated the arrival of 2007 with a Champaign toast followed by the
traditional cutting of
Vasilopita to bless our house and our guests and bring us good luck the New Year. Vasilopita
is a special Greek cake that is baked only once a year (on New Year's Eve)
and is combination of sweet bread and cake, on top of which is written the
actual number of the expected New Year and inside a coin is hidden. A piece
of cake is sliced for each family member according to age followed by
cutting slices for the guests.
The person who finds the coin in his/her slice of cake is considered blessed and will be lucky the whole year. In our
household this year's lucky recipient of the coin was our daughter Maria who
coincidentally was last year's winner also!
This is how we celebrated that special day at Starlight Tower with our
family and friends and we wish you all a very healthy, happy and prosperous
New Year 2007.
P.S.
I would be remiss not to mention that Nina slept soundly through all
commotion and racket between the fireworks on the beach and our noise
makers!
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