Hoppin, John 1/1/13

2013 dawned sunny and cold. An auspicious if not particularly dramatic beginning to the new year--we went to bed well before midnight, awoke rested, read the papers, watched the Rose Parade and went for a walk through the fields and down to the little creeks..

I grew up in Pasadena and participated in the Rose Parade in every way possible, from staking out a good parade viewing spot on the sidewalk, and spending New Year's Eve there, to riding on the floats, helping to make them, or marching down the 5.5 mile parade route with my high school alma mater. There are many memories associated with New Year's Day in Pasadena, and I still cannot miss a chance to relive them through the parade and the Rose Bowl game (even though I am far, far from my teen age years, and not much of a fan of football). The problem with the game is that now that television schedules set the rules of the game, it is virtually impossible to find out when it starts or what channel it can be seen on. Another one of those little challenges which fill our lives these days...

Yesterday, after telling Dana what a bad mood we were in the other day after going to Sebastopol to clean out the dregs of our life there, she and Jim gave us one of the best surprises we could have imagined. They appeared in our driveway with a minivan (not so mini as it turns out) full of almost all the remaining things from the farmhouse--big planters, random boxes, a chest of drawers and our patio furniture, put it all where it belongs, and disappeared to cook New Year's Eve dinner.

Tonight I am cooking the Hoppin' John (mostly beans) greens, corn bread and chocolate pudding cake. I doubt if this will be a suitable reward for Jim who is a Midwestern boy and looks askance at both beans and greens! Hopefully the promise of good luck to anyone who eats Hoppin' John on New Year's Day will offset the fact that they're still beans and greens....