Houghtaling Girls: Chinese New Year 2012

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Chinese New Year 2012

Happy New Year!! We celebrated hard for CNY this year. More so than our regular New Year! And I wouldn't have had it any way. We caught up with friends, old and new, and family! There was lots of Chinese food, lots of laughter and hugs, and even a dragon puppet!!

On Saturday, Ava and I headed to Cleveland. We were invited to join three of our travel families to celebrate! We haven't seen each other since our travel and it was so wonderful to see everyone. All the kids are growing up and changing so much!

I was in charge of dessert. Well, my original plan was to make a traditional Chinese dessert. Until I started to research. Let's just say we opted for cake!! I called Wixey's to see what they could do for me and here ya go!!

Goldfish and Mickey Mouse kept these girls super content.

Sunday was Round 2. Our local FCC hosted a lunch at Happy Rose. Here is Ava and her dress I had made. Isn't is adorable? I have to find her picture from last year and compare...

Me and my girl!!

Ava and Rosemary. They have a something very special in common other than China. They both share Uncle Tom!!

Sharing ice cream with EllaRozzie

Sweet Thomas

I love this kid!! My little Rozzie

It was a big party day and an exhausted little girl zonked out on the way home.

Monday was Round 3. I made cupcakes for Ava to take to school for her friends.

I also had these envelopes for the kids. It's customary for the adults to give the kids red envelopes with money which symbolizes Good Luck. I filled each envelope with the chocolate coins.

And sealed them with these stickers!!

Ava's teachers really stepped up with this holiday. They researched the holiday and traditions and have been incorporating it into class all week. Here are the Chinese lanterns they made

And the celebrations continued into the evening with family and friends at Empire Chinese Restaurant.