Sunday, February 20, 2011

Gung Hay Fat Choy

.... oh, you don't speak Mandarin either?  I'll help you out.  According to the internet it means 'Best wishes and Congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year' and is a typical greeting in China at this time of year.  Last night marked our third Chinese New Year (CNY) celebration with Tyson and our first with Lucy.  There is a (self-explanatory) group in our area called the Hampton Roads Families with Children from China, or HRFCC for short.  Last night the HRFCC held their annual CNY celebration.  My guess is that there were about 300 guests mostly clad in Chinese dress. Oh, what a site! They had dragon and lion dancers, musicians, caligraphers, merchants and a whole bunch of other stuff that would put even the most calm person on sensory overload.  And our kids loved.every.minute.of.it.  Tyson sat in rapt attention as the performers did their thing.  To occupy his time when the performers weren't on stage he fought his new and old friends with a 'what was his mother thinking?' newly purchased wooden sword. We often talk about our favorite part of our day but last night Tyson started to tell me about his '100 favorite parts of the night' before I cold even start to ask him any questions.  I think that we'll be back again next year:)  Lucy liked all of the things that she usually enjoys- food, music and her family.  
We had the privilege to celebrate with the Phelps family for the first time. Savanah is also a spicy Nanchang girl. This was our third year celebrating with the Sanzone family but heir littlest one, SarahJoy, is still in the hospital and we missed her so much.  SJ- we can't wait until next year when we're ALL together.
In true Melissa-style I photographed and videoed almost every second (well as much as one can with a two year old in tow).  So, I leave you with pics of Lucy and Ty.


Gung Hay Fat Choy!















1 comment:

Unknown said...

Looks like a good time! And, the traditional outfits look great on them! :)