Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Kai and Daisy wish everyone a very happy and prosperous Year Of The Dog!

As you can see from the picture above, Hui-Hui has overcome his fear of dogs. Daisy on the other hand has begun to develop a fear of Hui-Hui!

This is the first year our family has celebrated Chinese New Year. The traditional Chinese calendar follows the lunar cycles, and the New Year festival is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. You can read more about it by CLICKING HERE. Tina and I took Hui-Hui to a local asian market to buy red envelopes, some decorations and other goodies.
It was a busy day with other activities as well, Cameron competed in the local level of the WMEA Solo and Ensemble Contest. He played violin, both solo, and with the Bellingham High School's advanced chamber orchestra. The performances are single songs played in a classroom for a judge who provides the student with a constructive critique. Hui-Hui was very well behaved as we sat in on the performances. Cam did well and it was fun to hear him play pieces on which he has really worked hard.
For dinner we all went to the Lychee Buffet with two other families with children adopted from China. There were 14 of us in all and it was very fun. Hui-Hui's little friend Mimi was there and the two of them had a great time together. I forgot my camera again so I will now subject you to more pix shot with my crummy cell phone camera...






Our local newspaper ran an article (CLICK HERE TO READ IT) on extravagent dinners being offered for New Year's Celebrations by restaurants in China. One of the restaurants they mentioned was Quan Ju De. This is the Duck restaurant we went to when we were in Shijaizhuang!

The article talks about their most expensive holiday menu which feeds 10 people for about $1000. I would love to see that meal as the one we had there for 5 people had more food than we could every hope to eat in one sitting and the bill for everything came to only $45!

Apart from dinner out and red envelopes for the boys we haven't done too much else this year. There are some big celebrations both locally and in Seattle and Vancouver that we hope to be able to take Hui-Hui to when he's a bit older.
We have been enjoying a variety of great documentaries on China that are playing on the Discovery Channel this weekend and on CBC television.