Happy New Year

We rang in the new year quietly this year. We had our champagne toast with Nana & Abuelo and burnt the ano viejo (Gabriel's first ever). The burning of the ano viejo is a tradition in Ecuador in which you set fire to dummy filled with straw, or in our case balloons, the night of New Years to celebrate the birth of the new year and the dying of the old year.

I'm sure Gabe can't wait play a more active role in the tradition, including poking the ano viejo with sparklers...a favorite past time of mine when I was young.