Mexicali Blues

In a few days you will be proclaiming "Happy New Year," or in Spanish, "Feliz Año Nuevo" to your friends and family. We expect 2019 to be a wonderful time, February in particular. (That's when your favorite Mexican restaurant at the Lake of the Ozarks will be back from our winter break!)  Here in the United States, most of you will be ringing in the new year with champagne toasts, feasts, parties, and watching the ball drop on TV in Times Square. In Mexico, they have a few of their own traditions and Mexicali Blues has some of those to share with you today.    A Golden Midnight Toast People in Mexico share a toast of something sparkling at midnight just like we do. To add a bit of luck to their toast, they drop a gold ring into the glass before they drink it. This is supposed to help bring good fortune your way in the coming year. (Just don't swallow the ring! That would be a horrible way to start a year.) Choose Your Underwear Wisely Many people ...

“Feliz Año Nuevo!" which in English means, "Happy New Year!" 2017 is almost over, and we are all looking forward to a prosperous and happy 2018. Here in the United States many of you will celebrate New Year's Eve with champagne toasts, feasts, parties, and watching the ball drop on TV in Times Square. Mexicali Blues took a look at how people celebrate the coming of a new year in Mexico, and here are some of the traditions we discovered.  Eat a Dozen Grapes A popular Hispanic New Year's Eve tradition is to eat 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight and make a wish on each grape. There are 12 grapes to represent the 12 months of the year. We saw a couple of variations on this one. Some say you must eat all of the grapes in the 60 seconds before midnight strikes to get your wishes to come true. Others say you must eat a grape every time the clock strikes at midnight. (You'd have to be pretty fast to do it that way!) It is said that sweet grapes mean the mont...