We then headed for our fat Greek New Year a "two blocks away". Only and Italian could come up with a similar mixture of decorations some ethnic and some seasonal. The traditional blue and white dominated the decor with scenes  and objects from Greece on the walls and ceiling. Layered on top of all of these was the New Years decor. Clusters of metallic balloons, hats, chemical neon necklaces, trumpets and sparklers on the table. Giant numbers for 2012. Soon everyone was looking festive as they put on the party hats and crowns. Elizabeth look particularly fetching in her tier and so did I.

The meal was too much. It started with cold entrees consisting of four different Greek spreads like humus , with cucumbers, tomatoes and olives with pita bread. Next came the hot entrees which consisted of spinach pie, cheese triangles, meatballs, and chicken. Then the dramatic flaming cheese whose name I can't remember. Although Elizabeth had seen this before she had never eaten it and she enjoyed it. Finally our guts already bulging came the main course. We had both order the same meal which was lamb shank on orzo rice in a tomato sauce. It proved disappointing. In the sauce they had put cinnamon and nutmeg both items Elizabeth and I prefer on limited offerings. The meat had not been cooked enough and didn't fall from the bone but hung on and had to be carved away with much effort. We never ate the entirety of a course but paced ourselves. We have become to full and are even contemplating fasting for a day.

The use of spices in cooking goes back to the Middle Ages when they were a rarity. Only the rich could afford the exotic spices of the far off Orient. To impress your guest the more spices you had in a meal the more impressed your guests would be. A simply turkey dinner might have salt, pepper, cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg etc.

For dessert we had an assortment of Greek cookies that were quite tasty but we could only nibble on a few. I added some bitter Greek Coffee and we were done. The only problem we wanted to lie down and it was only 11 p.m. We huddled in a quite conversations so our fellow dinners couldn't hear us and finally agreed we would go home and watch the New Year come in on TV. Home we went and watched the glittering ball drop in Times Square giving each other a long kiss and hug and breathed a sigh that we could now go to bed. Happy New Year! At last time to rest, alas at our motel the other guest were partying in fact until 4 p.m. In the end it didn't matter we were so tired their reverie didn't keep us up.

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention there was a belly dancer at the fat Greek New Year's Eve Party?