Miss Becky's Blog

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!!

Dear Chinese Friends . . .

You all have been in my thoughts as I've prepared to Celebrate the Chinese New Year with my family. Celebrating Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) in China was a very special experience for Ken and I ... we really learned a lot about Chinese culture AND now I love sharing that with our family, especially the grandchildren. In fact some of our grandchildren celebrate the Chinese New Year in their schools.

Each month I send stories and books to my grandchildren that live in other states to read with their parents -- I call it NANA'S BOOK CLUB. This month I sent them the story of how the 12 Years were Named and a calendar so they could figure out what animal they are. I also sent a few Chinese Folk Stories, some "red couplets" for them to color and cut apart and put on their doors, along with other decorations and New Year's Prints AND a small red envelop with a silver dollar and Chinese treat for each of them.

Tomorrow, February 18th, your New Year's Day will be Sunday. We'll have a special Chinese Family dinner, including Jiao zi (which is Ken/Smiley's favorite Chinese food). Our son, Jason and his family who live with us and our youngest son, Brady, will be here with us.

I plan to read some of our Chinese books to the grandchildren and we'll play MahJong with the adults. We may also watch a video I taped from the TV, an excellent documentary entitled: "China From the Inside".

Since Spring Festival is such a special time for Chinese families, I want to share with you some pictures of some of our family members.

This is our son, K.C., his wife Holly and two little girls Savanah (3) and Allie (1).

K.C.'s family lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. Our daughter, Amy and her family lived there for a couple of years, but now live in Arizona. Amy has three boys and they often return to Las Vegas to visit family and friends. The pictures below were than there a couple of weeks ago when Amy's boys went on a hike with K.C.'s family.

Here's Jack (5), Savanah (4) and Gavin (3) -- they really do LOVE each other and are great cousins!!!!

This picture shows the beautiful desert landscape in the Valley of Fire, near Las Vegas, where they were hiking.

Here are all four of the children. Savanah is hugging her little sister Allie, who is 2 years old now and our youngest grandchild.

Allie, the littlest one, gets a ride from her Dad. Gavin (3) was able to walk the whole way!! These are the kinds of things that our family like to do.

I hope you'll have a wonderful HOLIDAY with your family. I would love to hear from you to know how you celebrated the New Year!

Our best wishes for a WONDERFUL and HAPPY New Year to you and your family.

Love,

Miss Becky