Happy Year of the pig!

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Happy Chinese New Year to all! James and I stayed up to bring in the New Year and was notified of the year change by loudspeakers blaring some sort of words and music in Vietnamese. Once the New Year began people went out into the streets and in little fires they burnt their offerings and tokens to bring good fortune to their families for the New Year. You could see some people praying at their alters (each home has them in various sizes - some take up an entire wall while others are small) and others lighting inscense and praying with them. It was very cool - I think my to add to my list of things to do before I die will be to spend Chinese New Year in China also. From our 3 rd floor hotel room we could see the great fireworks display downtown and woke the boys up for it but they could not remember this AM.


Kyle got the honours of being the first person to cross the threshold into the Vietnamese families house next door. The same family we had met a few days ago and that we have been seeing for short periods of time each day. The senior of the house beckoned Kyle into the front yard. He was all decked out in a suit and tie that had all his war medals on it. He than gave us his camera to take a picture of him presenting Kyle with a huge boquet of Irises. We also took a photo that I will try to post it the next couple of days. (I would like to post more but it is very slow as the pics take up a great bit of space).
It is very important in homes here that the first person to cross through your doors on the Near Year be suitable and of good character as that person will have some effect on the course of the families life in the year ahead. After the photos were were invited in for drinks and asked to sign the 2007 guest book for the house. It was very cool. Wish we could have been more prepared and brought some gifts. Each of the boys were also given the red chinese envelopes with a shiny 5000 dong coin in it.

The community was very cheery today with little girls dressed in their new dresses, many men in suits and ladies dressed up to. There appeared to be alot of visiting going on.

There were still some shops and restaurants open today so we just wandered. Bought our tickets to catch the Open Tour bus to Hue (central coast area also but a little further north) tomorow. I hear it is a 3 hour bus ride and we get picked up at our hotel at 8:am. That will give us enough time to say goodbye to the people next door.

Early to bed folks. Hope all is well at home Carrie and that our house does not keep you too busy, same with you Ty, don't sacrifice snow for play time ;)

Cheers

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