Traditions- 2019 calendars, Rosca de Reyes and fresh roasted chestnuts

mmm-yoso!!! is a food blog and sometimes food is a small part of the posts.  Today, it's about 2/3. Cathy is writing.

Happy New Year and thank you for the good wishes via Kirk's post.  It's a time of finishing up the holiday season, rearranging and writing '2019' on paperwork.   Part of my regular activity consists of acquiring new calendars from various businesses and sometimes posting about them with photos.  This year is the same. 
It started out slow; there were four Saturdays before Christmas in December 2018.  A lot of businesses waited to do their giveaways with a purchase.


Then giveaways began en masse and my friend, cc, helped by also collecting some of the calendars from various South Bay businesses.  I had told her that it was sad that our, 'regular' calendar from Orchard Supply Hardware (which closed in October) would be missing after giving away a train-centric calendar every year since 1931.  She even purchased one calendar for us (the outhouse one on the bottom right corner of this last photo (it will hold a prominent place in The Mister's office). We actually needed to find space for two more calendars because now there are so many.  

Within some of the above linked posts there has also been mention of Rosca de Reyes, a traditional Mexican bread shared on the 12th night after Christmas (Epiphany, January 6, Feast of Three Kings), usually while taking down Christmas decor. (In France, the traditional bread is Galette de Rois).  cc and I did a small 'food crawl' the other day and stopped at three South Bay bakeries.

 All of the bakeries had beautiful window art advertising the upcoming holiday.

They also had beautiful displays of the roscas for pre-ordering...
 as well as plenty of samples.

However, I had already pre-ordered (as well as picked up and mailed one Rosca on Thursday) from Su Pan. I was there at 6 a.m. today.
and Roscas as well as other fresh baked sweets were everywhere, fresh and ready to be picked up.  
A Grande for our neighbor and a Chica for us.  Fresh..so very fresh; the car smelled great.  Three slices with breakfast was perfect!

Another annual tradition is to take advantage of the freshly roasted chestnuts from in front of Lucky Seafood Market (which ran out of calendars before we got one). The little tent covering the chestnut roaster has disappeared, but the roaster, attached to a propane tank is right there at the door. (Apologies for the thumbnails, something happened with the phone update and the large size shows up sideways, but clicking on these enlarges and makes them appear upright...I don't know...).

 

There is one more annual tradition, which will be posted soon.  Does anyone else have unusual traditions?

Comments

[soo @ hungryones.com]

Nice selection of calendars!

[Caninecologne]

Having round fruits on display for New Years is a Tradition for us (normal for Filipinos but maybe unusual for others). Round fruits symbolize prosperity and abundance. Enjoy the Outhouses calendar (only $1.49 at Grocery Outlet), ha ha. Our bakery crawl was fun. My favorite rosca sample was from Mexico Lindo Bakery with its decadent filling

[kat]

nice varieties of calendars!

[Cathy]

Kind of old fashioned, to have advertising calendars, Soo. My dad always had a few in his workroom and in the garage. I'm sort of keeping the same thing going.
Oh, I read something about round foods somewhere the other day, but didn't relate it to fruit (yep, my mind went to round bread loaves and sliced salami). That's a good tradition. That Mexico Linod raisin filling was *wonderful*.
it is a good variety this year, Kat. I'm looking for a 2013, 2002, 1991 or 1985 Orchard Supply calendar in my 'storage' to hang in a special place (those are each a 365 day year that begins on a Tuesday).

[Jenn]

How funny about the calendars. They are so important. I spent over 30 mins searching for a calendar at barnes and noble and im still not satisfied with it!

[Cathy]

100% agree, Jenn; calendars are so important. I also carry an Engagement Calendar from the Farmers Almanac for making detailed notes. Electronic notes can disappear in a moment and a calendar is forever. (Welcome to the commenting side of the blog)

[Jenn]

Crucial business!!!