Year of the Horse


Our Chinese New Year holiday has come to an end.  Going from 4 years of a two month holiday down to a 10 day holiday is quite a blow.  We will just say the 10 days went pretty fast.  They were filled with friends, family, and fun.  Kicking off the New Year season, our school had Chinese Culture Day.  We had fun getting dressed up and watching the kids perform Chinese songs and dances with their classmates.  Next year we need to step it up and get matching family outfits to get more into the spirit.  We were so proud of our kids.  Watching them use the Chinese they have worked so hard to develop was amazing!  We can't believe how well they are doing.  Rob was selected to start off the fashion parade.  He was thrilled :-)   The students made fans, kites, dumplings, and paper cuttings.

The traditions for the holiday are to return to the home of your husbands parents, make jiaozi, watch the national CCTV broadcast, and set off fireworks.  We spent New Years Eve at Rob's parents place.  The boys set off two boxes of fireworks and a bunch of sparklers. The next day some wonderful Chinese friends made us all a big meal  including jiaozi.  So aside from the national program we basically observed the tradition in appropriate fashion :-)



The rest of the week was spent catching up with friends.  We had tons of company, overnight guests, birthday parties, babysitting.  The week flew by. The highlight was definitely our very unexpected snow day.  Snow is a rare thing here, snow that is deep enough to play in is very rare.  It's even better if it hapens on a day off school when your cousins are sleeping over.  It was a pretty magical moment when all the kids woke up and saw the snow outside.  A snowman, snowballfight, and some pancakes later we were all feeling pretty happy.







As usual our Chinese New Year holiday included a visit to the hospital.  We are 4 for 4 for each time we've been in China on this holiday.  Previous year's specials have included pneumonia twice and mononucleousis.  This year's special included a broken arm.  On a Sunday afternoon Maddie took an unfortunate fall from Robbie's bed that resulted in a  buckle fracture.  PTL the hospital was empty when we arrived and it was our smoothes experience yet.  Despite being hurt and scared, Maddie spoke to the doctor in perfect Chinese, answering all of his questions and co-operating fully.  She was amazing.   We are two weeks through her month in a cast.  She doesn't sleep well but during the day she is scrappy and happy.

Tomorrow we get back to the routine.  Can't wait to see what's in store.  We will find out what the year of the horse holds for the Clarkes.

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