The year is ending. We look back on what has happened this year, and we dream about our future.

What will this year be like? Can we know? Can we make our future happen, or must we wait and take what comes?

Old Year Cake

Grandma had a fun way to celebrate the turning of the year. I would get to help her bake a cake for New Year’s Eve.

After it was baked, and before we frosted it, she would hide three small items in three different places in the cake: A penny, a button and a bean.

It was so hard to wait for desert on New Year’s Eve!

Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad, all us girls, Aunts and Uncles and cousins. So many slices of cake, and only three things to find.

Here is a poem from Year-Round Read-Aloud, Read-Along Rhymes: Celebrating Holidays and Seasons

The Old Year Cake on New Year’s Eve

Grandma says the last day of the Old Year is the time to look ahead
And decide if you’ll take what’s coming, or make your way instead.
She’s baked an Old Year’s cake and hid a button and a bean
And a penny deep inside the cake so they can’t be seen.

Kind of like the coming year – we can’t see it yet.
But when we eat the Old Year cake, one of us will get
A slice of cake with a penny – that means money comes next year!
A slice of cake with a button – someone’s wedding could be near!

Whoever gets the bean will have to work hard for his food.
Grandpa says even if you don’t get the bean, that advice is good!
But Grandma says that New Year’s Eve’s the perfect time to bake
Your dreams for fortune, joy and work into an Old Year Cake!

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