恭喜發財！新年快樂！
Since being married in 2012, I've unfortunately been away from my parents during Chinese New Year. Celebrating Chinese New Year was an enormous part of my childhood. I mainly have memories of being in Chinese dance performances, going to our local Chinese New Year festival, eating scrumptious Chinese traditional dishes, and of course receiving red envelopes of money from our relatives.
My parents immigrated to this country many years ago. I don't know if they envisioned the rest of their lives in a foreign country, but I can tell you that they embraced it with very brave faces. My parents went on to adopt many American traditions. I feel very fortunate in that I was given the best of both worlds. I am most decidedly going to do all I can to teach my future family about our Chinese heritage in addition to their American roots.
So for this year I sent red envelopes of money to my two nephews, Deacon and Phoenix. It is tradition that once you are married, it is your turn to give red envelopes to family members who are of a younger generation, or if they are not married yet. I still have some red envelopes to send, so I'll get to that this week.
So for this year I sent red envelopes of money to my two nephews, Deacon and Phoenix. It is tradition that once you are married, it is your turn to give red envelopes to family members who are of a younger generation, or if they are not married yet. I still have some red envelopes to send, so I'll get to that this week.
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| red envelopes I bought this year |
Last year I decided that I was going to carry on these traditions and so I began learning how to make some of my favorite Chinese dishes. It doesn't taste quite like my mom's yet, but someday I'll get there. We invited our friends and the missionaries from our church to have dinner with us. When I signed up to feed the missionaries dinner, I didn't realize that exact date was Chinese New Year, so they were in for a surprise.
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| west lake soup |
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| chinese green vegetables |
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| cha siu, chinese-style bbq pork |
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| cha siu baau, buns with a bbq pork filling |
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| potstickers |
Everything turned out really well. I was relieved that everyone liked something on the table. It took a lot of work, but mainly because there was so much to make. However, it was completely worth all the effort because it helps me to improve my cooking skills. That is one of my goals this year.
May the year of the Horse be a great one for you!
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