A Very Porcine New Year To You!!!

Aren't these cute? They were given out at the hotel here in Frankfurt as Happy New Year favors. Piggy themes are very big for New Year's in Germany. They symbolize good luck, prosperity, living off the fat, and other happy things. In Googling around - I found one site that said "Pigs are considered good luck because they root forward, symbolizing progress." So allow me to wish you full snouts ahead for 2008! May your troughs be full of plenty today and every day! And...may you never be disturbed when your snouts are in the trough.

Apparently lots of countries have some sort of traditional pork-related meal to celebrate New Year's day - right down to ham hocks and blackeyed peas from Mr. Chirpchatty's Southern roots. When I first met Mr. C., I'd only had BBQ sauce from a jar and wasn't overly keen on it. One trip to his home town in Alabama soon cured me of that. Not a low-fat dish in the state - but all the yummier for it! I followed his Grandmother around for days with a little notebook trying to learn all her secrets for his favorite dishes. Didn't get 'em. The training was on the order of "Oh that's easy - you just take a pinch of this and add a dash of that to it." I don't know from these pinches, tad bits, smidgens and dashes that all good cooks seem to have memorized. Not only that - you can't measure them with a regular spoon measure - it can only be done with your fingertips. Not that I'm the scientific type of cook - when and if I cook - but there's a world of wiggle room in the pinch and dash genre.

Boy do the Germans love their fireworks! We're on the 39th floor at the Frankfurt Marriott and have a lovely view, albeit of a mostly empty Expo and Trade Center. No matter! Come five minutes to midnite, the fireworks began. No big central show that went high into the sky, but zillions of little poofs, booms, and sparkles going off in every direction. The city is very flat so it was easy to see for some distance. The show must have gone on for 40 minutes without let-up. Finally there was so much white smoke everywhere that everyone had to cash it in.

There is a coffee shop in the lobby that we've been visiting. Each cup is the size of a small vat and takes both hands to lift! This makes Mr. Chirpjangley veeerrrry happy!

If I'm good, Mr. C. says he'll take me to the yarn store shown below this week. He took a picture of it for me early last year when I couldn't come with him on a previous trip to Frankfurt. Oh boyoboyoboy!