Tag: Chinese New Year ideas

Year of the Rooster!

January 30
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We have a lot of family celebrations that have now become much anticipated traditions…Chinese New year is one of our favorites!  Even when our boys were little, they were pretty adventurous eaters so it was always easy to introduce new cuisines and celebrate with food!  I love all the opportunities to have meals around the table together…whether it’s big celebrations like Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter…right down to our corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day,  a Mexican feast on Cinco DeMayo, or all the Asian choices for Chinese New Year!  Over the past several years we’ve invited friends over to enjoy the Chinese New Year with us.  It’s a fun celebration to get a little creative and since the theme changes with the zodiac calendar, each year is something new until the cycle repeats itself!  But this holiday we kept it simple and decided to celebrate with just the four of us and place a take-out order from one of our favorite Chinese restaurants!  And since I didn’t have to prepare any food…I had a little fun making our table just as festive as if we were having guests!  By recycling my supplies I saved a lot of time and money creating a simple but fun table!  If you think you missed out on the Chinese New Year celebrations, not to worry!  They’re not over for 15 days into the new year so you’ve got plenty of time to break out the chopsticks and still have some fun!

Celebrating the Chinese New Year!

Monkey Around!

February 8
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Today is officially the beginning of the Chinese New Year…the year of the Monkey!  If you’re feeling festive, it really is easy to pull off a quick party theme…especially since you can order takeout from your local Chinese restaurant and add thematic touches with store-bought items like fortune cookies and chopsticks!  So we pulled off a fun celebration with several family friends over the weekend…a semi-new tradition started by my youngest son a couple years ago!  I’d like to share some of the simple ideas for a Chinese New Year or even a casual, Chinese takeout dinner party…it’s easy to make a simple meal simply festive!

2016…the year of the monkey!

Gettin’ Ready to Monkey Around!

February 5
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Life seems to throw tons at us all at the same time!  The next few days are about as packed full of celebrations as you can get…Super Bowl Sunday is followed by the Chinese New Year on Monday followed again by Mardi Gras on Tuesday!  Not to mention that Valentine’s Day is right on the heels of all those potential parties!  I think it’s fair to say there’s NO way I can pull multiple celebrations from my sleeve…so now it’s just which one to choose?  For my family, the Super Bowl is out of the question since it happens to be on a school night!  And even though we don’t have guests, we still fix up a big platter of spicy wings and stay up to watch the game…or most of it anyway!  So out of the remaining two,  we decided to celebrate the Chinese New Year…and will be doing so a couple days early so we can have our holiday fun over the weekend!  It seemed natural to pick this celebration since our oldest just took a school trip to China this past summer…and bonus, he brought back some fun souvenirs we can decorate with!  Monday will be the beginning of the Chinese New Year and according to the 12-year Chinese animal zodiac, it’s the year of the monkey!  And even though this animal year is considered to be the most unlucky, there will be plenty of good fortune abounding around here!  As I prepare for our weekend fun, I’ll share a sneak peek at what’s to come…you’ll have to wait ’til Monday for the rest!

a new year celebration in the works…

Chinese New Year

January 20
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January 31st 2014 marks the start of the Chinese New Year!  An ancient family celebration to honor elders and ancestors, rid bad spirits and welcome good fortune is now a popular party theme–whether you descend from those regions or just enjoy the idea of gathering with friends for an evening of festivity!  Each year of the Chinese calendar is represented by an animal in 12 year cycles…2014 is the year of the horse…so you can have fun creating a celebration with traditional Chinese decorations as well as the animal representing the year!  Make it a family affair and invite all ages to experience the excitement of something new!

the year of the horse…