Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year wasn't a super big deal while growing up. Mainly, it was the party that helped us kids through the post-holiday letdown, after seeing our same friends for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's all within the course of two months. It was also the fun party where Uncle Robert set up the betting board and toy horse race track, we got to squander or save our hong bao money and where we got to "smell the money" from his famously perfumed money box to entice us to bet our quarters away.

So needless to say, I didn't have any strong traditions I wanted to pass down to our kids. Poor Tom said his family friends didn't even exchange hong bao. At least our family friends did and we got to guess who would be generous and who would be cheap. It was enough to get us through the next couple of months with precious spending money for candy or a record.

When this year's Chinese New Year's came close, I really didn't have anything planned. There was the Chinese New Year performance but my main goal there was to get Tobey to sing the words. So I'm not sure what got me doing more for this holiday than even Christmas or Thanksgiving with the kids.

First of all, I kind of forgot the whole valentine's card thing for the kids at school (luckily, Valentine's Day fell on a Wednesday, a non-school day for Tobey) so I quickly improvised and had Tobey make and give hong bao's of quarters to his classmates. And then I tried on some Chinese outfits given to use when Tobey was younger and found one fit Tobey and one fit Eli, I was actually excited about going to the Chinese New Year performance to give them a chance to wear their cute outfits. And finally when I went to decorate the auditorium at the school, I guess I saw what a big deal it is to other Chinese in the area. The crowning event was a yummy dinner at Eric & Chia-Chi's and my first experience putting together "real" hong bao for our friends' kids. Yes, I am shocked that I am now at a stage in life where I give, not get, hong bao.

So it was fun to pass down some Chinese experiences to Tobey. Like Chia-Chi said, if she doesn't make a big deal out of Chinese New Year, her kids never will learn about it. Gong xi, everyone.