chinese new year

 Our local church congregation has a magnet Chinese group.  We have a sacrament meeting in Mandarin in addition to our English meeting each week.  The ward culture is very cool and unique!  A few weeks ago, we had a ward activity that was a Chinese New Year celebration. 

 I remember celebrating Chinese New Year occasionally in elementary school, and always enjoyed all the fun traditions and cultural elements.  The Chinese members of our ward put together a great program.

 My favorite part was, undoubtedly, the amazing food.  Egg rolls, dumplings, sweet grilled chicken, and so much more delish Chinese food! I could not get enough. 

While we were there, we looked up our Chinese zodiacc signs.  I'm a rooster, Tyler is a dragon, TJ is a horse, and Eli is a goat.  We were thrilled to find out that roosters and dragons are very compatible, and likely to have a long and happy marriage!  So fun.

At the end of the program, they had two lions come out and do the lion dance.  My kids were a little scared, but mostly they thought it was great!  Afterward, they got to go up and see the lion costumes up close and get a blessing from the money god.  A cute member of the ward was all dressed up in traditional garb and a mask, handing out red envelopes to the children.  My kids were thrilled to find that their blessing was chocolate coins.

It was one of those events I will remember for a long time.  It makes me want to find more opportunities to experience other cultures with my kids!  I was so grateful we had such a great chance to celebrate with our Chinese brothers and sisters!  Welcome to the year of the dog!