Chinese New Year

This year, Chinese New Year fell on the same day as Austraila Day - January, 26th. It wasn't difficult to decide which holiday we should celebrate. There's a huge emphasis on food whenever Chinese New Year rolls around! So, it was imperative that CNY became a priority! (sorry, my Aussie friends...I did think about making meat pies and pasties, though!)

Oh, Joshua is wearing a traditional Chinese boy outfit in the pic above. It fits him better this year than last! 2009 is the year of the Ox. So, Baby Girl will be one, Joshua is a dog, Jared is a horse, and I'm a rat (lovely).

We started off the CNY celebration by inviting Jared's parents over for dinner Saturday night. We cooked a few dishes - I made wonton soup, chicken rice, bak choy with oyster sauce. That was all I had the energy for. Jared made szechuan beef with snow peas! I'm so proud of him!!

On Chinese New Year day itself, we went to one of our favorite restaurants for lunch, the Penang Restaurant in Rolling Meadows. Here's a pic of Joshua and Jared by one of the windows where you could see them make the traditional dishes. It was a yummy lunch!!

The day after CNY, we were invited to my cousin's house for dinner. Jennifer made a feast! It's always fun to get together with family, especially for Chinese New Year. The kids all received red packets, and Rebecca even wore a traditional Chinese blouse.

Some of the traditions include:

• wearing red
• wearing new clothes (we didn't adhere to that - maybe when the economy picks up!)
• red packets for kids
• no cleaning on CNY (I love this!)

I'm sure there's more, but I can't remember them at this time...

I really hope that we'll get to spend Chinese New Year with my extended family in Singapore one of these years. I desire for Joshua to know his heritage and to embrace the beauty of the Chinese culture, of which there's so much. I know I'm not doing a good job at that, partly because I feel so westernized. I do want to impart all that I know and learned from my parents and grandparents about our heritage, and perhaps Joshua, Baby Girl, and I can rediscover the uniqueness and beauty of being Chinese, and to thank God for blessing us with a rich and vibrant heritage.

Happy New Year, or as we say, Gong Xi Fa Choy!!