Even More of a Good Thing

OK, I'll admit it.

If you can over-celebrate Chinese New Year, we probably have. But what's not to love? It's another chance to see friends (and make a few new ones), eat Chinese food, experience a rich and colorful culture, and you don't even have to buy presents for anyone.

And so off we went--for the first time--to the celebration run by our local Families with Children from China group. Louis is sort of a founding member of the local FCC Boys Club, but the Chinese New Year celebration happens exactly at naptime for us, and if you've been reading this blog for long, you may know that we take napping very seriously here.

Who knows what got into us, but we decided to go anyway. Maybe we were homesick for China. Maybe we forgot how rough napless days can be. Maybe we just really wanted to see the lion dance. Whatever it was, we headed off to the party.

There were crafts.

Louis and Michael both made red envelopes to feed to the lion during the Lion Dance.

Louis took the cutting very seriously, of course. At one table where they were making Chinese lanterns, Louis cut very carefully and created...a red bullet train. I couldn't argue with him. Bullet trains are Chinese, after all.

Michael was more into glue.

They were both interested in the food.

I don't know how many trips members of our family made to the food table for duck sauce, drinks, fortune cookies, and more duck sauce, but we covered a lot of ground that day.

 

On one of our many trips to the food tables, Louis noticed the Chinese opera performers putting on their costumes. He immediately spotted the Monkey King. Before we traveled to China, we asked Louis what souvenirs we should look for for him, and one of the items on his wish list was "a Monkey King." We struck out. It was no surprise to us that Louis immediately latched onto the Monkey King today.

He waited as this queen character performed, kneeling next to the stage, as close as he could be, to get the best possible view. (And this woman could not have been more gracious when our curious boy approached her several times before and after the production.)

Michael wasn't as enthusiastic, but he did want to see the Monkey King take the stage.

Then, at long last, the Monkey King appeared.

Louis had many questions about the Monkey King's actions--as the character stole oranges and hid from another character on the stage.

After the performance, the children were invited to come up for a photo with the performers. Louis just wanted to talk to the Monkey King. He had questions for him.

Finally our boy turned around to look at me--because the queen told him to.

And he even smiled--though this didn't work out particularly well.

Louis still hadn't gotten to ask his question yet, though. So we waited, and as the Monkey King walked away from the stage, Louis stopped him.

"Excuse me, Monkey King," he said. "Why are you so mischief?"

The Monkey King laughed.

Then we went to our Boys Club meeting, which was appropriately held on a running track above the gym.

You might be wondering why Michael isn't wearing pants. (So was Louis, who kept saying, "Mama, can I be pantless too?") Let's just say, the boys had a fantastic lunch, but in the after-lunch aftermath, we lost a pair of pants. The spare pair was in the car, which was parked a good distance away, so we let Michael hang out in his supersized T-shirt. He was very happy.

Then, at long last, it was time for the Lion Dance. Our boys were still awake and fascinated.

The costume was so colorful, the drums were exhilarating, and Baba and I were in awe.

Louis was nervous and Michael was a bit tired.

They liked the lion just fine as long as it was up on the stage.

Did I mention he had large glowing blue eyes? And he looked right at us?

Then he jumped off the stage and landed practically on top of us. Our boys are some of the bravest children I have ever met, but one was crying and one was shaking in fear. Since one of our boys can't even watch a carousel go around without clinging to his mother, this wasn't really a surprise. I just didn't expect the lion to come so close.

But he has to come close--so he can eat your red envelopes. Thank goodness, Baba was brave enough to feed the boys' envelopes to the lion.

What are fathers for, after all?

The event left quite an impression on our boys. They loved the food, seeing the other children, and especially meeting the Monkey King. I especially loved that we saw so many families we had met before or are happy to have now met--and that I ran into my good friend Joyce, whom I do not see often enough. We also were joined by our friend Marny, who leaves to travel to China to adopt her daughter on Wednesday!)

 

And I don't know how feeding those envelopes to the lions works, but it's supposed to bring the children good luck for the year. Maybe some of the luck rubbed off on Baba, since he did the feeding, because when we got home late that afternoon, both boys happily fell into bed for way-overdue naps.

Hey, around here, it's all about the naps.

And, yes, that was, at long last, our final Chinese New Year celebration of the year.

Louis, meanwhile, is already looking forward to celebrating the Year of the Snake.

(Here are two videos from the event--the lion dance and the Monkey King.)