Year of the Horse

Today begins the Chinese New Year.  As I wrote last year, it is important to us that we preserve Nora's culture.  Today was also the six year mark of Owen's diagnosis, I typically journal a few words here about this date but reflecting back it seems that the feelings year over year on this date are often the same, and it's easy to slip back into that unforgettable moment and hearing the words that our baby had a condition "incompatible with life."

So, this year, no dedicated blog post to January 31st.  Instead, a dedicated blog post to our Chinese Firecracker and preserving her culture.

(Side note - if you look closely you can see that Lydia has a bit of a shiner ... an encouter with Jack's sweatshirt ... while said sweatshirt was being swung around Lydia fell victim to the zipper ...)

 

To celebrate, we went out for Chinese with sweet friends. 

We also did a little decorating using last year's lanterns we made and some new foil paper stars.  

We again dipped fortune cookies (and, admittedly, we know that fortune cookies are totally an American thing, but they do look pretty in red glitter).  The kids got their red envelopes with money (chocolate coins). 

We set off a lantern and let the arctic breeze take it away (a balmy 4 degrees earlier this evening ...). 

And, we even celebrated at work in honor of our colleagues in China. 

Such a rich holiday ... may we always preserve the beauty of her culture!

 

Happy Chinese New Year!!!