Year of the Dragon

The kids in their Chinese outfits they wore to church. 

 We celebrated Chinese New Year a couple weeks ago.  I accidentally planned it on the same day as the Superbowl, so it was slightly overshadowed by the game, but we had fun nonetheless.  Tracie and Justin, Meg and Kirk and my Mom came as well as my cousin who just left for NYC.  We ate a hot pot dinner as is our tradition.  We made lanterns, danced to the dragon dance music, listened to the awesome soundtrack of House of Flying Daggers and ate a variety of Asian deserts.  I put up the posters that I had painted years ago and hung up a bunch of lanterns for the party.  I just love how festive it looks.   We really missed the Chou family and had no Chinese people at our party this year.  Well, at least Henry and my other kids will be going to Chinese school and that's a good enough excuse to celebrate a random ethnic holiday that's not our own.

The rooster that Bea loved playing with.  I think she's pretty too.

 All the kids have Chinese outfits, well at least they did.  Henry's ripped at the seams and by the time the party started, his outfit was in shreds and it was the newest one! He kept complaining that his shirt wouldn't stay closed and that there was a gaping hole in the seat of his pants.  I just used about 10 safety pins to hold them closed and made him go to church like that.  haha.  He even had to give a talk in church like that too.  lol.  Violette's dress is a Japanese pattern that my mom sewed, so that was close enough to being Chinese for me.  Clementine and Bea have authentic outfits from China Town, or maybe they were hand-me-downs from the Chous.  Can't remember.  Anyway, they were all Asiafied. 

Chinese paper fish we put together a couple years ago

I like that it's the year of the Dragon because I would always call my sister, Lucy, my little dragon and we'd speak in our own dragon language. It's the most significant year of her life as she serves the Lord on a mission in Japan, so it's so fitting that it be the year of the Dragon.  I miss my baby dragon. 

My house pre-party