{"id":6867,"date":"2014-12-30T23:00:10","date_gmt":"2014-12-31T06:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/?p=6867"},"modified":"2015-01-02T18:56:32","modified_gmt":"2015-01-03T01:56:32","slug":"new-years-blog-hop-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/2014\/12\/new-years-blog-hop-2015","title":{"rendered":"New Year\u2019s Blog Hop&nbsp;2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-attachment-id=\"6874\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/2014\/12\/new-years-blog-hop-2015\/5067775_blog\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/5067775_blog.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"400,277\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"5067775_blog\" data-image-description data-image-caption data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/5067775_blog-300x208.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/5067775_blog.jpg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-6874\" src=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/5067775_blog.jpg\" alt=\"5067775_blog\" width=\"400\" height=\"277\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/5067775_blog.jpg 400w, https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/5067775_blog-300x208.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">Wel\u00adcome! I&nbsp;hope you\u2019re hav\u00ading fun hop\u00adping along with us on this very fes\u00adtive New Year\u2019s Week\u00adend! If you don\u2019t know me, I\u2019m romance author <a href=\"http:\/\/alannacoca.com\" target=\"_blank\">Alan\u00adna Coca<\/a>, also writ\u00ading erot\u00adic romance as <a href=\"http:\/\/oliviabrynn.com\" target=\"_blank\">Olivia Brynn<\/a>. I&nbsp;write most\u00adly con\u00adtem\u00adpo\u00adrary sin\u00adgle titles, includ\u00ading west\u00aderns and inter\u00adra\u00adcial short sto\u00adries, but I&nbsp;do have an his\u00adtoric west\u00adern thrown in there.&nbsp;If you\u2019d like a&nbsp;sam\u00adple, I&nbsp;have some Free Reads! They\u2019re on the right side\u00adbar as you scroll, so please pick one up in your favorite for\u00admat. Vis\u00adit my web\u00adsites at your leisure by click\u00ading my names&nbsp;above.<\/p>\n<p>First, I\u2019d like to share this video that Google made. Seri\u00adous\u00adly worth 90&nbsp;sec\u00adonds of your&nbsp;time<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DVwHCGAr_OE?rel=0\" width=\"700\" height=\"420\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Now I\u2019ve got a&nbsp;lit\u00adtle chal\u00adlenge&nbsp;for you. One of the fol\u00adlow\u00ading ten facts about New Year\u2019s cel\u00ade\u00adbra\u00adtions around the world is <span class=\"caps\">NOT<\/span> true. Can you find&nbsp;it?<\/p>\n<p><strong>1)<\/strong> In Spain, when the clock strikes mid\u00adnight,&nbsp;they&nbsp;eat twelve&nbsp;grapes\u2013one for each lucky month ahead. Are grapes even in sea\u00adson in January?<\/p>\n<p><strong>2)<\/strong> In Den\u00admark, they throw dish\u00ades at oth\u00ader peo\u00adple\u2019s front doors. Those who end up with the most bro\u00adken dish\u00ades on their porch are con\u00adsid\u00adered lucky, as they have an abun\u00addance of loy\u00adal friends. I&nbsp;sup\u00adpose these folks feel pres\u00adsured to have din\u00adner par\u00adties after that, since none of their friends have any dish\u00ades&nbsp;left.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3)<\/strong> In Argenti\u00adna, it\u2019s good luck to start off the new year by step\u00adping for\u00adward with your right foot at exact\u00adly 12:00 a.m. Tough luck for one-left-legged Argentinians.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4)<\/strong> In&nbsp;Egypt, sev\u00ader\u00adal vil\u00adlages&nbsp;dress&nbsp;their old\u00adest liv\u00ading male res\u00adi\u00addent in white robes, then parade him down the main road where the rest of the cit\u00adi\u00adzens pin watch faces onto his cloth\u00ading. By the time the elder\u00adly man fin\u00adish\u00ades his trek, his cloth\u00ading could weigh upwards of 300&nbsp;pounds! I\u2019d hate to see what they do to their youngest inhabitant.<\/p>\n<p><strong><img data-attachment-id=\"6875\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/2014\/12\/new-years-blog-hop-2015\/5106113_blog\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/5106113_blog.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"287,400\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"5106113_blog\" data-image-description data-image-caption data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/5106113_blog-215x300.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/5106113_blog.jpg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6875\" src=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/5106113_blog.jpg\" alt=\"5106113_blog\" width=\"287\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/5106113_blog.jpg 287w, https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/5106113_blog-215x300.jpg 215w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 287px) 100vw, 287px\">5)<\/strong> Res\u00adi\u00addents of Brazil dress all in white on New Year\u2019s Eve to ward away bad spir\u00adits, then gath\u00ader at the beach to toss flow\u00aders&nbsp;into the water to appease the god\u00addess Yema\u00adja. I\u2019m all for liv\u00ading any\u00adwhere that I&nbsp;can be on a&nbsp;beach on Jan\u00adu\u00adary&nbsp;first.<\/p>\n<p><strong>6)<\/strong> In Colum\u00adbia, you\u2019d&nbsp;walk around your neigh\u00adbor\u00adhood car\u00adry\u00ading an&nbsp;emp\u00adty suit\u00adcase to encour\u00adage trav\u00adel\u00ading in the new year. Not sure what des\u00adtiny a&nbsp;full suit\u00adcase would&nbsp;bring.<\/p>\n<p><strong>7)<\/strong> The Japan\u00adese ring a&nbsp;bell exact\u00adly 108 times, and they believe it is good luck to begin the new year laugh\u00ading. This should be easy for us&nbsp;all!<\/p>\n<p><strong>8)<\/strong> Every year on Christ\u00admas Day, peo\u00adple in a&nbsp;small Peru\u00advian vil\u00adlage engage in fist fights to set\u00adtle all of their dif\u00adfer\u00adences so they&nbsp;can&nbsp;begin the new year with a&nbsp;clean slate.&nbsp;I&nbsp;think this is where Fes\u00adtivus came&nbsp;from.<\/p>\n<p><strong>9)<\/strong> The first Scot to cross a&nbsp;friend or neigh\u00adbor\u2019s thresh\u00adold bear\u00ading gifts of food, whiskey and mon\u00adey is called \u201cFirst Foot\u00ading\u201d. But&nbsp;what would hap\u00adpen if I\u2019m vis\u00adit\u00ading my friend and she\u2019s out vis\u00adit\u00ading some\u00adone&nbsp;else?<\/p>\n<p><strong>10)<\/strong> In South Africa, they throw old appli\u00adances out of their win\u00addows to ring in the new year. Must be a&nbsp;pret\u00adty dan\u00adger\u00adous place for a&nbsp;stroll.<\/p>\n<p><strong><img data-attachment-id=\"6879\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/2014\/12\/new-years-blog-hop-2015\/wp_20141228_004\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/WP_20141228_004.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"918,1632\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;2&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Lumia 920&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1419808131&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;800&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.07035&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Ornaments\" data-image-description data-image-caption data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/WP_20141228_004-169x300.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/WP_20141228_004-576x1024.jpg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"  wp-image-6879 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/WP_20141228_004-576x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Ornaments\" width=\"279\" height=\"496\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/WP_20141228_004-576x1024.jpg 576w, https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/WP_20141228_004-169x300.jpg 169w, https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/WP_20141228_004.jpg 918w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 279px) 100vw, 279px\">Okay, my chal\u00adlenge to you: Only one of the above ten facts is <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><span class=\"caps\">NOT<\/span> <span class=\"caps\">TRUE<\/span>!<\/span> In your com\u00adment below, give me the fact num\u00adber that you think is too out\u00adlandish to be true. &nbsp;<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">I\u2019m putting com\u00adments on mod\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion to hide them from the rest of you, because peek\u00ading!<\/span>&nbsp;So don\u2019t wor\u00adry if your com\u00adment does\u00adn\u2019t show, it\u2019s there. Probably.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Every\u00adone who\u2019s&nbsp;right&nbsp;will get&nbsp;one of my hand\u00admade Christ\u00admas orna\u00adments pic\u00adtured&nbsp;here&nbsp;\u00bb<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>just in time for you to pack it away for next year! (sor\u00adry) So leave your ship\u00adping address in the com\u00adment, I\u2019ll keep the com\u00adments hid\u00adden so they won\u2019t show for any\u00adone but&nbsp;me.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Every\u00adone who com\u00adments will be put in a&nbsp;draw\u00ading for the win\u00adner\u2019s choice of a&nbsp;dig\u00adi\u00adtal back\u00adlist title. Good luck, and enjoy! After you com\u00adment, click this big pur\u00adple but\u00adton to vis\u00adit the next author\u2019s site. You won\u2019t want to miss&nbsp;this:<\/strong><\/p>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/rhondalprint.com\/2015\/01\/02\/happy-new-year\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-attachment-id=\"6872\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/2014\/12\/new-years-blog-hop-2015\/button\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Button.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"400,150\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Button\" data-image-description data-image-caption data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Button-300x113.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Button.jpg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-6872 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Button.jpg\" alt=\"Button\" width=\"400\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Button.jpg 400w, https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Button-300x113.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\"><\/a><\/h1>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Happy New&nbsp;Year!<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wel\u00adcome! I&nbsp;hope you\u2019re hav\u00ading fun hop\u00adping along with us on this very fes\u00adtive New Year\u2019s Week\u00adend! If you don\u2019t know me, I\u2019m romance author Alan\u00adna Coca, also writ\u00ading erot\u00adic romance&nbsp;[\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"twitterCardType":"summary","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":""},"categories":[3,13,5,6,12],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3WdCY-1ML","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6867"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6867"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6891,"href":"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6867\/revisions\/6891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}