It’s not often you get to celebrate TWO holidays at the same time, eh?
First was Valentine’s Day. We waffled back and forth on whether to do Valentine’s cards or not for Ava’s daycare friends since the two year old class neither encouraged nor discouraged them and we ultimately decided not to bother – - – until I dropped her off at daycare on Friday and she pitifully asked me where hers were since nearly everyone else had sent bags full of cards and candy along with their kids. Of course I had to save the day and spent 1/4 of my workday hastily shopping for and assembling Chinese red envelopes, tiger valentines, and chocolate coins to be distributed at their Valentine’s party to be held later that afternoon, which I now had to leave work early for in order to attend since I had to deliver the valentines to distribute so we wouldn’t be forever known as the slacker parents.
Needless to say, it was not my most productive day at work. She, however, made out like a bandit. Who knew that Valentine’s is comparable to Halloween in regards to how much chocolate/sugared loot can be scored in one day?
Sorry, no pictures from the daycare party. Primarily since she wouldn’t leave my side for even one single minute once I walked into the room. It’s kind of difficult to take a picture of someone who’s physically attached to your leg.
She got her valentines from mama and daddy on Saturday morning. Of course Mama shopped for it all while Daddy got most of the glory for being the presenter but whatever. She was happy and Daddy now knows that his job is to ensure that she receives a heart box of chocolates every single year until (minimum) she turns 18. My dad did this for me for years and years and I loved it – I saved all the tacky lace and plastic flower decorated heart boxes for years until they all got thrown out (not by me) during a move. It meant the world to me and it’s a memory I want her to have.
Of course it was also Lunar New Year – so we had to welcome the Year of the Tiger in with much fanfare. We had tastefully decorated the house with some scattered lanterns and we’d swapped out last year’s ox for our new tiger.
Oh wait, did someone say new tiger? Oh yes, here he is in all his glittery glory.
We have some old tiger friends, too.
I cannot believe she used to wear these shoes, by the way. They’re so tiny. We bought them for her while we were in China and she wore them to her first FCC Chinese New Year party.
After she posed all her tigers for their photo shoots she consented to sit down and (sorta) allowed me to take her picture.
Sorta because she wasn’t given her hong bao until she sat at her table to fill the rice urn with rice and coins (unfortunately not gold coins but we’ll take any kind of extra prosperity we can get). Yes, we bribed her but she had loads of fun doing it once she gave it a shot.
Me? Not nearly as much fun as she did since I was cleaning up rice for a solid week afterward.
We finished up our New Year celebration with a lovely Chinese dinner out with friends. If only all holidays could be like this – low stress, minimal spend, and sharing good food and better conversations with family and friends.
Life IS good.