CNY

We got together with some friends on Tuesday of last week for a little Chinese New Year celebration. It was a lot of fun and a lot of good food. We are so blessed to have some fantastic friends here.

Our friends' house that we visited is in the New Territories, very close to mainland China. In fact, Eric (the husband/dad) works in China and has to cross the border every. single. day. I can't even imagine what his passport looks like. It took us about an hour and a half to get there, but it was so worth it.

They even have a trampoline! The kids were in heaven. Okay, Calvin doesn't look like he is happy here, but I swear he was happy!

Okay, maybe not. In both of these pictures, he looks a little uncomfortable.

It was cold and rainy outside, but the kids were committed to the trampoline. It was a different design than the one we grew up with. It didn't have any exposed springs and they had a mesh cage protecting the kids from falling off. This was a far cry from the death trap that we used to jump on.

I also went to a nearby village (Lam Tsuen) to see the Wishing Tree. It is a beautiful, old banyan tree. People used to write their wish on a piece of paper, tie it to an orange and throw it up into the tree. If it stuck, the wish would come true. The tree grew too old and frail to support the wishes, so they now use a fake tree (which you will see later). This is the real deal here though.

You can see how much it is propped up.

This part of amazing. Some of the branches of the tree have grown up (or down, I don't know) back into the ground. It was a beautiful tree and made me wish that I took better pictures.

Richard had to stay at the party with the kids because neither of them wanted him to go. Our sweet hostess offered to stay with them, but Nora DID NOT want Richard to leave. The entire time we were gone, Nora just played with her friends, so Richard was a little annoyed that he didn't go.

There was a bit of a dragon dance going on when we were there. Very beautiful and fun.

More dragon.

A view of the fake tree where people throw wishes now. The pink paper is the wishes. I went up to the village with our awesome friends Matt and Michelle. From a distance, we saw people trying to throw the paper wishes tied to oranges up into the tree. We kept seeing people failing and oranges falling to the group. We couldn't believe that they couldn't get the wish into the tree. We were laughing and making fun of them. You can see where this is going, right?

People burning joss sticks before making their wish. It increases the luck that your wish will come true.

More burning sticks.

And more burning sticks.

The oranges with the paper to make the wish. When we saw them from a distance, we assumed the oranges were real. Turns out they were fake, plastic, light weight oranges. Made the trowing a little more difficult.

Matt, with the orange.

Some beautiful lanterns.

Nora didn't want to go to the wishing tree, but she wanted to make sure that we made a wish for her. She wished to be a princess. We took a picture for her to show that we really did make her wish. Although, since she can't read, we could have put anything on here :)

A little closer view of the wishing tree. We also wished that Matt and Michelle's new baby (due in June) would become a baby model and earn enough money for college by the age of 2. And that time with family would equal billable hours. Matt is also an attorney and spends a lot of time at the office.

Matt, getting ready to throw our wish.

The first unsuccessful attempt. It took us three times to get the wish into the tree. It was hilarious. The Chinese people around us cheered when Matt finally got it into the tree.

Nora with our awesome host of the day. Her name is Shauna Zollinger and Nora always calls her "Shauna Zollinger." I love it and I love Shauna. I can't say enough good things about her. She is a gem.

This is Calvin and his betrothed, Oren. His mom and I have already decided on an arranged marriage. We'll give them until 30 to find their own spouse, and then we are intervening.

Nora had to jump into the picture as well. Aren't they all so darling.

Gung Hei Fat Choi from the Hawkins Family!