Chinese new year is the BEST!

---

Having a break from work has been really nice, we have visited temples and spent time with Tom's family who are visiting. We went to a Taoist temple and that religion is very bureaucratic, there is a heavenly 'department' of deities for everything and the is even a 'department' for signing the documents that approve things like rain and plagues! Today, we spent all day with Tom's family, we stayed up past midnight watching the new years TV special, eating and making jiaozi (dumplings). Fireworks are illegal in Beijing so apparently we have less fireworks than other cities, Tom said in Shenyang you can't see the sky because it's covered in fireworks! As Tom's older brother drank more and more he started speaking more and more broken English, it was too funny 😊 Since this year is my year, year of the rabbit, I have been wearing lots of red for good luck.

---

Photos

New Year's Eve
Taoist temple

New Year's Eve
haha Yuanyuan is so silly

New Year's Eve
making dough for dumplings (jiaozi)

New Year's Eve
ewww dough hands!

New Year's Eve
learning to do it right :)

New Year's Eve
learning to do it right

New Year's Eve
my first good jiaozi!

New Year's Eve
pretty much anyone with hands was putting off fireworks

New Year's Eve
I kept it pretty low-key :)

New Year's Eve
brave brave souls setting up the next show!

New Year's Eve
close enough?

Comments

[Mom]

Chinese New Year
So that is why people keep telling me happy New Year in February. What fun! How awesome. Love you and miss you.

[Colleen]

Gung Hay Fat Choy!
Someone told Matt and me once that the farther away you get from Beijing, the less regulated and restrictive things are. We were in Kunming, Yunnan Province, I believe, when Lunar New Year occurred. Fireworks and firecrackers everywhere, and one of us almost blew our hand off, but I can't remember who. The explosion must have knocked it from my senses. Anyway, we are lucky. You're a rabbit, eh? I'm a horse, and Matt's a monkey. He keeps joking about this being the year of the "metal rabbit" and headbanging with his hand making the devil sign. Silly, eh? Heh, now I sound Canadian. Anyway, keep the posts coming. We miss you!

[BlissLauraM]

farther away from Beijing
actually lately Beijing is the worst place because there is more money, lots of cirriculum planners and westerners with higher education won't work in Beijing because it ruins their reputation

[Kate English]

too adorable!!!