It's a Happy Moonpie New Year!

   This year New Year's Eve was quite a bit different than the past few years. First, we're in a place that gets significantly more weather than Santa Barbara - the thunder and lightning kept me awake well into the night with its show. I think some places nearby had tornadoes and flooding; and to think I thought thunderstorms were a summer event! Now despite the weather, we still decided to stay in due to the fact that this holiday seems primarily centered around drinking (which I am currently not partaking in for obvious reasons), not to mention that my usual bedtime is somewhat earlier than it used to be. So, end result was a pleasant night in.

   In keeping with tradition, Derek made homemade cioppino (which was delicious by the way), and we enjoyed playing card games and watching various TV coverage of New Year's Eve celebrations around the country. Now for those of you who have never lived in the Central Time Zone, here's an interesting trivia point - have you ever noticed that TV programs always state the viewing time as something like "10/9c"? I bet you never paid attention, but you'll notice it now. What does this mean? It means that rather than airing programs at the typical time (say midnight for this example), they merely broadcast the program at the same time that they are airing it on the East Coast (aka 11pm Central Time). At first this is really really confusing and frustrating, because it means that everytime you see an advertizement for a tv show, you must remember that it will be aired one hour earlier than what they say. After a few weeks, however, you get used to it and thank your husband for springing for the DVR we have.

   Of course, this also means that on New Year's Eve the ball drop in Times Square is aired at 11pm, and that Jay Leno is on TV at midnight - a bit anti-climactic. Thankfully, local broadcasting came to the rescue and we were able to see a real-time celebration at midnight. What was it? The Mobile Moonpie Drop!

   As I had never heard of a moonpie before, I had to look it up to find out what it was. Answer - a cookie comprised of 2 graham crackers stuck together with marshmallow and then dipped in chocolate. Apparently it is a typical "southern" dessert and has been around for about 200 years. And on New Year's Eve, the city of Mobile, Alabama has begun their own tradition of dropping a large disc representing a giant moonpie at the stroke of midnight. Not quite as flashy as the ball in Times Square, it was entertaining to watch and made us feel a bit more like locals.

   Now I just need to find out where I can get one of these and try it out. Happy Moonpie New Year's everyone!