Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is a big tradition in Jonathon's family. Every year his mom and dad host a huge dinner. Everyone brings all kinds of food, and we all sit on the floor around a big square table that they set up for the occasion. She even has fancy bowls from China and chopsticks. 

This year, mom and dad are being really careful because of Covid. They decided that they couldn't host it, but said they would still love if the rest of us got together. We decided to host the party at our house and invite all the siblings who live close by. Mom usually makes it such a fun experience, so I didn't want to fail her. We assigned out all of our favorite foods, and I headed to the party store to pick up a few decorations. Jonathon also stopped on the way home from work to borrow mom's bowls and chopsticks. 

It was a lot of work. I cleaned, decorated, and cooked all day, but it ended up being super fun! The boys even helped me with the food. Andrew and Christian made the orange chicken all by themselves. They are getting to be good cooks! Hyrum helped with the potstickers, and I made homemade fortune cookies. Tera and BJ brought beef and broccoli and egg rolls, and Tiff and Mike brought egg drop soup, stir fry vegetables, and fried rice. We had so much delicious food! 

After we ate dinner, I had Christian present a little powerpoint project on Chinese New Year. He told us all about the Chinese calendar (This is the year of the metal ox) and various traditions like not showering on New Years and handing out red envelopes with lucky money. He did a good job, and I learned a lot. Then we played a game that I made up. It was based on the game "Just One," but I came up with words that all had to do with China. It ended up working pretty well. We had a great evening and enjoyed spending it together. Hopefully, next time, Jonathon's mom and dad will be able to participate.