Tonight is New Year's Eve (the "real" one, according to local's), the 30th of the month of the lunar calendar. As I write, the fireworks outside are coming at more frequent intervals and the noise factor increases about every half hour. It is only 9:30 pm, which means they have really only barely begun.
We spent the late afternoon and evening at a New Year's party at the Shaffars. We "bao jiaozi" (wrapped dumplings) and ate them. I tried a new recipe in my bilingual cookbook- apple jiaozi. Someone compared them to McDonald's apple pie- though hopefully a step up. They are jiaozi, but the filling is apples, cinnamon and brown sugar. You deep fry them for a minute or two and then roll it in cinnamon sugar. I think they turned out well. The Shaffars had gone all out with decorations and encouraged dressing up in local costume. I didn't, but I found these matching outfits for about $5/each and could not resist.
Despite Austin's obvious aversion to having his picture taken ( he looks so sad in the first picture, but it is only b/c he did not want his picture taken) , he loved the outfit and wanted to wear it all day. They had little stuffed tigers for the kids (tomorrow begins the year of the Tiger) and hong baos (little red envelopes with money in them). Chinese kids are all given hong baos at the New Year from parents and relatives- in fact, often they receive them until they are married and then they are expected to give them too.
After we ate, we all headed outside to set off some fireworks of our own. Well, I did not actually set anything off nor did our children, but some of the dads and older kids had a blast. In America you would never be allowed to just set off fireworks on your street outside your house, but that is what everyone here does. Little stands selling fireworks suddenly appeared on every street corner about a week ago. This was right outside the gate to our complex.
The boys watching the fireworks. They both seemed to mostly like it and Austin said nothing about the loud noise. He did comment that it was "So bright". Bennett either said "ooh" or "Uh oh" every time. I am not sure what the "uh oh"part was for, unless he thought that the falling from the sky was like something falling down.
Our crowd setting off some firecrackers in the street.
1 comments:
Austin definitely does not like having his picture taken! Bennett is like "whatever", lol! Great pics and stories. Thanks for sharing. Love, Uncle David.
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