Gung Hay Fat Choy

Gung Hay Fat Choy! You know...Happy Chinese New Year.

This is the new postal service stamp honoring the Chinese New Year.

Since Sunday was the Chinese New Year (and yes, Valentine's Day) and Brooke and Zach were having sleepovers with friends, Charlie and I took Miles to dinner to celebrate the Chinese new year. This tradition started when Miles was in kindergarten and they had a wonderful school celebration where they had a dragon parade, food and lots of fun, educational activities about this cultural event. So ever since then we have made a point of celebrating and observing this day. And let's face it I am ALWAYS up for celebrating a holiday and eating out.

We headed to Shang Hai and our food was OK...lets just say Texas isn't the place you wanna go for Chinese food...sorry, it's true. But the best parts of the evening were watching Miles open his fortune and watching Miles run out the door while Charlie paid the bill.

First, Miles is notorious for being indecisive. His answer to all questions asked of him is always the same, "I don't know!" He opened his fortune last night and immediately started laughing, then he showed it to me and I laughed so loud I actually drew attention from surrounding tables....his fortune was " Your power is in your ability to decide." Aaaahhh..so true, I only hope he realizes this soon. My fortune was "The mightiest oak in the forest is just a little nut that held its ground"....yes, again so true and sometimes I feel like I am that nut. I think I will start living daily life based on Chinese fortunes alone.

At any rate, we were heading out after our meal and Charlie was paying our bill. Miles and I both knew what was going to happen and so Miles was physically running out the door but I heard and saw it as I too headed out....

"How was your dinner, sir?" And Charlie responds "good, thank you....Gung Hay Fat Choy"...he knows no embarrassment. The lady said "oooh it is the New Year..." So evidently in addition to being fluent in French he can also speak Chinese.....goodness help us all!

If you are interested in learning more about Chinese New Year, you can find some kid friendly info here.

Now we are on to celebrating Mardi Gras tomorrow. I am making Jambalaya. So many holidays, so little time.