Happy Year of the Dog

Today was Chinese New Year (or Spring Festival, as they traditionally call it), and we have been partying hard! We had parties last night and tonight to attend. I dressed both kids up in traditional Chinese outfits (I've got to post some pictures!). Aislinn was in a pink two-piece that was Audrey's when she was a baby, and Audrey wore a one-piece qipao for the first time...she looked like such a big girl, even with the cute pigtails I put in her hair. Last night was a pitch-in with a large group we've been a part of. That was the best: home-cooked REAL Chinese food, including my favorite, and the traditional New Year's dish...boiled dumplings. MMMM....dipped in a sauce of red rice vinegar, soy sauce, and spicy sesame oil. Tonight was a bigger party, but a little less fun because 1) we don't know as many people there (Leo likes to go mainly to network for work) and 2) the food is catered by a local Chinese restaurant, which means, NO BIG DEAL. There were dumplings again, but they were nowhere as good as last night's.

At the end of both evenings, all the kids were called up to the front where the oldest granny present had the privilege of presenting each kid with a hongbao, a red envelope with "lucky" money inside. Audrey always gets one or two extra hongbao from other adults that know us, and this year she made out like a bandit...$8.00! We even forgot to give our own kids hongbao this year, but Audrey didn't think to ask about it, and is now so rich anyway I can't see that it mattered much.

If we were in China, Leo would probably not work for at least two whole weeks. Two weeks from now is Yuanxiao Jie, or the Lantern Festival, which concludes the new year's celebration. It is celebrated by eating a soup of yuanxiao, sesame paste dumplings. You gag, I'm sure, at reading that, but trust me: yuanxiao are a sweet treat YOU all are missing out on. If you're curious, you can find frozen ones that aren't half bad at most Chinese grocery stores. And if you're not curious, that's OK...that much more for the rest of us.