The Year of the Rabbit

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone! (Here are the kids showing off their red envelopes.)

This year I shared about Chinese New Year year 2 times--once with Elina's class and once with Eli's "little preschool." (I put that in quotes because it's really a casual neighborhood coop thing we started with 2 other moms on our block...even though it's in quotes, Eli takes it very seriously and is VERY proud to go to "school." It's really cute!)

For Elina's class, I talked about the traditions, the zodiac, and I taught them how to say "Chinese New Year" in Mandarin so they could get their red envelopes. I also brought in a dragon craft (where they decorated their own dragons), some fried rice, and almond cookies. Everything was a hit! (Eli was a real fan of Elina's classroom. In the 2nd collage, you can see Eli is enjoying the reading center.) For Eli's class, I talked about the lion and dragon dances and even had the kids do the dragon dance. We made dragon puppets and ate almond cookies as well...unfortunately, the almond cookies weren't as popular with the 3 year old set.

Eli really got into Chinese New Year this year. He was so proud of his dragons! His new favorite toy is our lion dance puppet. He drags it around with him everywhere he goes. He loves to touch the soft fur and pretend to feed him money (and other things as well). He'll sit the lion on his lap and say, "He's so fuzzy!" His new favorite book is Lion Dancer, which has pictures from the early 80s. It follows this boy through his Chinese New Year traditions and ultimately, his lion dance. Eli thinks it's the coolest book ever. Eli even remembers how to say "Happy Chinese New Year" in Mandarin on his own.
Because Eli was so excited this year, we were really excited to take him to the Asian Festival. One of the highlights for the kids was holding real bunnies. They loved it. The other highlight was the lion dance. We arrived early where the lion dance was going to take place, so all the costumes were laid out on the floor for people to look at. When Eli saw the lion head costumes on the floor, he was in heaven. He couldn't believe how big and fancy they were. I love the picture I got...2 lion heads next to 2 Asian kids doing the Asian squat. (Side note: Asians are really good at doing this particular squat. It's how they pass the time or wait for something. It's weird because B and I do not do this squat AT ALL...but for some reason the kids ALWAYS do this squat. It's seriously in their blood!)
Unfortunately, once the loud music started, Eli got scared. He ran to B's lap and sat with him the entire time. He watched with his mouth wide open almost the entire time. He loved seeing it in person, but it was all too big and too loud for him. I think he was torn. Then when it was time to feed the lion money, he chickened out. So Elina fed the lions 2 times for the both of them...she was super-excited to feed them (I love her facial expression after she fed the lion!). Poor Eli! But he still had fun...maybe next year he'll want to feed the lion money.
On Chinese New Year's Eve we had a hot pot dinner with dumplings. My parents were in Taiwan at the time, so it wasn't quite the same...meaning, we had to get up out of our seats a lot to serve ourselves. It almost felt weird to have to do all that work. Usually food just magically appears on our plates. Oh well! It was still yummy...just more work on our part.

We hope everyone has a great new year!