Tomorrow is the last day of the year and we don’t have any plans to celebrate it.

Growing up in Brazil, my family always followed some of the many traditions surrounding this date. We weren’t as die hard as some folks who try to follow as many of the rituals as possible but it was always fun to do a few of them (wear new white clothes, new underwear, jump waves, kiss someone of the opposite sex).

Here’s a list of some of the Brazilian rituals for welcoming the new year.

Jumping waves
To celebrate Iemanja, the sea goddess, you jump seven waves at midnight and walk out of the water backwards (so as not to turn your back to the sea).

White clothes
This is also in honor of Iemanja. Tradition calls for new, white clothes, to be worn on New Year’s Eve.

Eat certain foods for prosperity
Eat a pomegranate and save seven seeds in your wallet or a spoonful of lentils, ditto or seven grapes. Never tried this one but I have friends who swear by it.

Kiss someone of the opposite (or the same) sex
This supposedly helps you attract new love or keep the one you have.

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Wear new underwear
This one has all kinds of rules surrounding which color to wear:

• Blue - Power, action, force
• Pink - Love, understanding, conciliation, attraction
• Gold/Yellow - Wisdom and prosperity
• Yellow - Same as gold; it also stimulates creativity
• White - Harmony, peace, stability
• Red - Passionate love, desire
• Green - Vitality, positive energy. Green also brings health

Today is our 3 year anniversary. It’s hard to believe that it’s been three years since our wedding and our honeymoon adventure.

To top it off, I got two awesome gifts this year!

This is our first xmas at the new house. And as a married couple.

We got a nice tree (now that we actually have decent height ceilings) and the boys helped  us decorate.

We’ll also be celebrating our first anniversary on the 26th. :-)

Ugh! I had gum surgery to fix a recessed gum brought on by my nocturnal teeth grinding. They had to do a graft using tissue from the roof of my mouth. It hurts a lot and the worst part is that I can only eat soft foods.

Today we picked up our chocolate lab from the airport. He has the biggest paws I’ve ever seen. His mom and dad were pretty big and I have a feeling he’ll follow on their footsteps.

The breeder seems to have done a good job picking out a puppy that matched our crazy requirements. I wanted a sweet, good-natured, well-behaved dog while my husband wanted him to be playful and energetic.

This is the first day in our new house. We’re finally homeowners!

There’s a nice trail behind our place which is where this picture was taken from.

We’re going to a miniature golf place tomorrow. Believe it or not, I’ve never done this before so I’m sure it will be fun for everyone else to watch my lack of coordination. =)

stepmom fears
Two of C’s kids are here visiting us. They’re 12 and 14. And they’re both boys. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to relate to them since I’m not that used to be around kids. But they’re the sweetest and smartest kids I’ve ever met.
His oldest son (17) and youngest son (9) are coming at the end of the month. I’m now much less stressed about meeting the other two!

Meet the Parents

Peter James (Cinematographer). Universal Studios 2000, DVD, $14.98

My parents are in town. Yay! They met C. and everyone got along famously. Yay! We’ve been spending a lot of time talking about the wedding. Ugh! All my fears that I’m not bride material are starting to materialize. I’ve never been one of those girls who fantasized about her wedding day. I never even thought about it at all. But now there’s all this stuff to think about. Eloping sounds like such a good idea…

I’ll try to type up the brief version of everything that’s happened in the past several months:

• C. moved in
• C. had a motorcycle accident and broke his clavicle in January
• Sofia (one of my best friends from Brazil) came to visit, fell in love with Steve (C.’s best friend)
• C. had two surgeries to fix broken clavicle
• Sofia moved to California
• C. spent several months recovering from his surgery
• Sofia and Steve had their City Hall wedding. Their "real" wedding ceremony will be in July.
• C. and I got engaged
• My family is arriving this weekend for Sofia’s wedding