Gung Ho Fat Choy

Today is the Chinese New Year and that is the traditional greeting which means "may prosperity be with you". This is a very important time of year in most of Asia. It is a time to celebrate new beginnings,and fresh starts. They celebrate for 15 days and here are some of the traditions and preparations: cleaning the house to "sweep away the bad luck from last year", getting haircuts and new clothes for a fresh, clean start, decorating the house with red banners and scrolls for good luck, placing live blooming plants around the house to symbolize renewal, and handing out red envelopes with money inside to all the children for good luck. We had a little family dinner celebration last night with some chinese food, decorated the house with lanterns and dragons, and gave Laina a couple of small gifts(at 2, money isn't all that interesting thank goodness). We started learning to count to 10 in Mandarin, and read some Chinese New Year stories we found at the library. In the coming years we intend to learn more about it and attend some of the parades and festivities in Chinatown, or with our China travel group and all of the kids. Tomorrow they will make paper lanterns at Laina's Day Care and read some of the stories I have to the other kids. In the Chinese zodiac this is the year of the Ox. The Chinese observe a 12-year cycle in which each year is named after a particular animal. Laina was born in 2006, the Year of the Dog, Jimmy is a Rabbit and I am an Ox. I used to have a link for the zodiac for you to click on, just scroll down on the side of the blog. Hopefully it works. So we wish all of our family and friends "Gung Ho Fat Choy" today and hope for a fantastic New Year for all of you!

Glamour Girl

This one speaks for itself.

Holiday Happiness

Happy New Year! The Benoits have had a terrific Christmas and winter so far. Laina enjoyed the holiday much more than last year when she was sick all Christmas Day. Some memorable moments this season: We read some Christmas cards to her and explained that "Peace on Earth" is when everyone likes each other and everyone is happy and that it might be a good thing to ask for from Santa. We were in the Post Office and someone came up and asked "What do you want from Santa this year,Laina?" and her response was "Peace on Earth and a couple of toys", and added "an alligator and a duckie". It was very cute. She made her first snowman, as last year we didn't get much snow where we live. After we came inside, we looked out the window at him and she said, "That's my first snowman in the Whole Wide World". On Christmas evening, we went to visit with our friends next door and their daughter had a new pet gerbil named Dolly. Laina asked to hold her and was very gentle with it, petting her with one finger and talking like a Mommy.."It's okay, Dolly, I'm holding you". Very sweet, she is not afraid of animals at all, sometimes teases our cats a little too much but is generally very gentle. One of her special gifts this year is a toy horse barn and paddock made by her Uncle Rob and Aunt Betsy.One of the photos is of when she flipped the roof open and put the horses up there.They also made her a Super Girl cape and accessories that she likes a lot. She played some new musical instruments while wearing her cape, it was a good show.There's also a photo of a really nice balloon puzzle that her Gampa made and a couple of other shots. Photo opportunities are many but I am often just too busy with her to pick up the camera.Today I am unable to crop or brighten or edit the photos for some reason so they are not as good as they might be. We'd welcome any good pictures from the family. We hope that all our friends and family are weathering the storms, and that 2009 will bring good fortune, health and happiness to us all.