Chinese New Year!

This weekend was filled with some new culture for our family, thanks to our boy Lucas being in our family.  He was so excited about Chinese New Year.  He has told me about it for months.  He spoke of special foods they ate there in addition to fireworks and parties.  He really wanted to see a spectacular fireworks display this "New Year" but we just can't quite seem to deliver on that one.

Our weekend consisted of getting together for lunch yesterday with a new group of friends that have children adopted from China.

And then today we went to the Chinese Cultural Center/China Town--in Atlanta (it's a smaller venue but still a good taste of the events)

This was the Dragon Parade/dance
Part of the "tradition" was to put money in the mouth of the dragon after the dance was done.  Some people had the traditional red envelopes, but we just tossed our money in and the dragon seemed ok with that...

Lucas spied something that he thought he recognized to eat and got very excited about it.  It looked like a leaf with sticky rice inside and meat.

 But, once he tasted it, he made this face...I don't think it was quite what he expected.  And he kept asking for "sauce" but they didn't have any.  So, it got a "rejection" from the young man...

Chinese dancers and other performers also entertained for quite a while.

It was fun to experience some new culture with our boy and so much of it he recognized and really seemed to love.  

  Tonight is the "eve" of the "New Year" celebration which will go on for about 2 weeks.  We will see if we can celebrate some more in the next few days.  

FYI this is the Year of the Dragon for those who want to know.  There are many Chinese traditions and beliefs that we don't ascribe to, but this was a good way to just share in our boy's history and something familiar.