Greek New Year celebrations

The day before New Year's Eve hubby and I took our goddaughter and her sister to the cinema to see Bee Movie (which we all loved). I took this photo of the Christmas boats on the way to the theatre. I thought they were really cute.


Afterwards we bought balloons from a street vendor. Who are these little people? Could it be Santa and Cinderella?


Oh no. They're two little princesses :-)


On New Year's Eve we went to a friend's house for dinner. There were 15 of us in total, so there was A LOT of food on the table.


I took a picture of my plate before I tucked in: scrumptious cheese pie (a typical Greek dish), roast potatoes, cheese, lettuce, chicken, spinach pie (another typical dish), sausage and cabbage. Yum yum!


We finished eating just before midnight, in time for the new year countdown. Once we welcomed the new year with songs, hugs and present opening, we cut the New Year Cake. There's a coin hidden in the cake, and the one who finds the coin in his or her piece will have good luck throughout the year.


Could the lucky coin be in this piece?


Actually, it's here! Well done, Chris!


Most young people go out to a bar or club after the cutting of the cake (usually around 1 AM) but we're obviously getting on a bit, as we chose to stay in, watch TV (there's always a show on) and play card games until the early hours of the morning. You're supposed to play games of chance on New Year's Day for good luck. The little white things on the table are actually beans and they represent money (10 beans = 1€). Hubby lost 200 beans, which is good news, as Greeks believe he who loses in cards, wins in love :-)