Gung Hay Fat Choy! 5/52 - Project 52

Wishing you health, prosperity, and happiness 

in this Year of the Horse!

We're very lucky in that we get to spend the upcoming weekend

with our beloved China travel group at a hotel,

swimming, eating and celebrating.

Grace was born in the Year of the Horse as were all the other children adopted

in her travel group.

We have known these wonderful families now

for over 10 years.

Hope you are doing something fun to bring in the new year!

Happy Chinese New Year!

 

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Wishing you health, prosperity and happiness in this year of the snake!

 

 

 

Since Grace was a teeny tiny girl, we have made it a tradition to celebrate

and welcome Chinese New Year (also known as the Spring festival).

I have snapshots of her with her travel group sisters at age 17 mos.

Photos of her at age 3 in a restaurant in Chicago next to a lion dancer.

She was a little bit afraid of that big lion head, as I remember.

 

 

 

 After we moved from the Chicago area up to Wisconsin
we've found more ways to welcome Chinese New Year.

 

 

 This weekend we spent much of our Saturday with
our local Madison FCC group at their Chinese New Year celebration.
We enjoyed singing performances by Madison's International School,
Kung Fu (Grace and Will's favorite), and watched several Chinese dance groups.

We ended the day with dinner at our favorite restaurant and
spent time with the owners...
Will's unofficial Chinese 'Grandparents' who
come from the same city and province (Fuzhou in Fujian Province)
that Will was born.
They adore our little boy and give him little gifts and big
hugs everytime they see him.
It's wonderful for Will to have this connection.
Grace too...they always include her.
 

 

 Will was not so much for individual photos so I was lucky to get this one of him
with Grace.

5/52 and Beyond Layers - Storyboard

This week for Kim Klassen's Beyond Layers class

 we were challenged to make a storyboard with our photos.

The antique cloisonne dragon teapot that we brought back

 from Guangzhou in 2008 inspired me for the theme of my storyboard.

With 2 children adopted from China we've been all things New Year in the last 2 weeks or so.

I happen to love that many different celebrations are still on going.

Wishing you health, happiness and many blessings in this new year!

4/52 and Favorite Photo Friday - Celebrating the year of the dragon

{lion dance costumes}

This was a first for us as we joined our local FCC group
and participated in their Chinese New Year celebration.

Grace loved the crafts and made a few beaded items,
a bookmark, and various other things.
She was in heaven!

Will was in a parade with the golden dragon.
He also met a friend from his kindergarten class
who has a twin sister.
The three of them hung out the entire time.
He was delighted to see Hope and Stella there.

 One of the highlights for us all was the Lion dance.

There were 6 lions dancing around the large room.
This was the first time that Will got to put hong bao in the lion's mouth.
(so fun!)

The other highlight was seeing this Chinese dance group perform.
The peacock costumes were designed and hand made in China for this event
and shipped back here.

There were also performances by a kung fu group,
singers,
 of course fireworks (bubble wrap)
and plenty of food.

We definitely will be back next year!

(Sunday Snapshot) - Xin Nian Kuai Le!

{Chinese New Year Portraits}

 

Chinese New Year started a little early for us.

Saturday was our Madison FCC celebration.

I took advantage of the fact that Grace and Will

were dressed in their Chinese silks and took some portraits.

It's fun to see how much they have grown in a year.

8 years ago we celebrated Chinese New Year 

for the first time

with Grace's travel group.

Grace was 17 mos. old.

Every year we try to do something.

Xin Nian Kuai Le!
(Happy New Year!)

Gong Xi Fa Cai!
(Congratulations and Be Prosperous!)

Wishing you a healthy, blessed and prosperous Year of the Dragon!!

3/52 - preparation

Chinese New Year Lantern

We have the house decorated and ready to welcome the Year of the Dragon that starts Jan. 23.

I've been asked to give Chinese New Year presentations

 to both of Grace and Will's classes this year.

It's been fun to prepare and we're pretty excited.


Edited later to say:
So I've been asked about resources and what am I presenting?
I try and keep it age appropriate, Will is in Kindergarten so
I'm reading Bringing In the New Year by Grace Lin.
I'll show the class where the country of China is as related to the United States
on a globe or map in the classroom.
We'll do a craft and make a paper dragon,
have a snack of oranges
 and hand out red envelopes with chocolate coins in them (at the end).
We may play a game.
For Grace's class(3rd) we'll do a little more.

A great resource that I highly recommend is the book,
Chinese New Year For Kids, by Cindy Roberts.

Both of the above books are found on Amazon and I linked to them.

Some other web sites I love are
China Sprout for everything Chinese and culture related.

Oriental Trading for red envelopes, items for a party, etc.


Please let me know if anyone has other resources,
would love to find out more!

black and white Wednesday - Gung Hei Fat Choy!

Tomorrow is Feb. 3 which starts the year of the Rabbit.

I can just imagine what it's like in China right now, with all the preparation for this holiday.

Chinese New Year is so much more than firecrackers and lion dances.

Though I've never been in China during it's Spring Festival,

I've heard it's very much like Christmas is to us.

It's a time for families to gather, give gifts, eat and celebrate together.

We have our own family traditions of decorating for the holiday,

eating special foods,

 and later in the month, a weekend get together with our beloved China travel group.

I also take pictures every year of my kids in their traditional Chinese clothes.

It's a way for us to look back and see how much they've grown.

This particular session turned into a giggle fest,
starting with the supreme giggler (Will) and then Grace had her turn.
We had lots of fun.

Please be sure to go to Lisa's Black and White Wednesday,
over at The Long Road to China
 to see many more pictures...

and Happy New Year!