New Years

This year Katy and I had a good New Years. We went over to some friends house and celebrated with them.
For New Years over here they have some different traditions and where able to take part in them as well.
For New Years we had Raclette. Everybody sits around a grill in the middle of the table and cooks cut-up meat on the top of the grill/hot plate and cut-up
veggies with cheese on top in little pans in the middle of the grill underneath the hot plate. It is great because you sit around the table and dinner can take up to a couple of hours. This way you just a chance to talk and have a good time while having a good meal.
After dinner we sat around and played cards at the table - Katy taught our Austrian friends

some new card games and we got to try some real champagne - Moet & Chandon and Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin (one of the Champagne houses that we briefly visited when we were in Reims last year).

Around midnight we went outside and lit off fireworks. Like it was in Germany last year, there were lots and lots of people outside and you could see and hear fireworks going off in every direction. New Years for fireworks here, is like the 4th of July is back home. Although they dont have the big fireworks show in a lot of cities like they do back home.
I think kids like New Years becuase they are allowed to stay up and go outside to see the fireworks instead of having to go to bed early. For Christmas Katy got me a pack of fireworks and I had a good time shooting them off, along with fireworks of our friends.
Then right at midnight we shared in the world-wide tradition of a kiss at midnight and then tried to dance to the Blue Danube Waltz which is broadcasted on the radio throughout Austria at 12:00am.
After some more fireworks it was back inside for another New Years tradition - some gulash soup and we sat around the table again and took part in another custom - Bleigießen (Lead Pouring).
I found this on the internet and think it explains it pretty well:
Bleigießen literally means “lead pouring.” Each person takes a turn putting a small amount of lead in a metal spoon. They hold the spoon over a candle’s flame until the lead melts and then pour it quickly into a bowl of water. The water immediately cools the lead into pieces, no two of which are alike.

The melter then retrieves the cooled lead pieces from the water for inspection. He figures out what they remind him of, much like the way people see shapes in clouds. Sometimes they hold the pieces up to a light to see if the shadow helps them determine what shape the lead piece is. Whatever shape the lead is helps predict what will happen to that person in the coming year.
Katy and I thought we kept getting what looked like fish and fish mean you will have luck in the lottery so the next time powerball is high look out - you will know the winners :)
Then when we woke up on the 1st we watched the Vienna Philharmonic New Year's concert, which has been a long tradition,
and is broadcasted all over world. The last song that is played, the Radeztky March, the people in the audience can clap along to the beat and the conductor actually turns around and directs them. It was pretty interesting to see.