New Year's isn't just the time for partying, although it's the predominant thing to do. There are also the people who spend the time at home with family, a quieter celebration. For a long time, that's been my New Year's. It's predictable, but definitely not ordinary. Every year there's a get together on New Year's Day at one family member's home to eat, drink and be merry. New Year's Eve, however, the kitchen's bustling and bubbling in preparation for a midnight meal plus a few superstitious elements going on outside of the oven and stove.

Prior to midnight, there's a table full of cooked into circles and spheres, anything round. The round shape represents money in the new year. The more dots, the more money. So we've got mini corn muffins, meatballs and sauerkraut or Swedish meatballs, spinach balls and tons of Filipino food like siopao (a round, steamed bun with a meat filling; I prefer chicken) or carioca (a fried dessert slathered in coconut and a sweet, gooey sauce). Sometimes there's flan and another dessert that involves tapioca, I can't remember or pronounce the name, but it's good.

Besides the round food there was the requirement of being bedecked in at least one article of clothing that had circles or polka dots. When I was younger I'd steal a couple of my dad's ties and wear them all at once. I especially enjoyed the obnoxious yellow tie with smilie faces that either my brother or I had given him one year.

At midnight, all the lights in the house must be turned on as well as all the doors open. This signifies the welcoming of a new year and letting out the old.

It's a superstitious tradition, but, to me, it's as common as people sharing a kiss or clinking champagne glasses at midnight.