Chunjie Kuaile!

Or, Happy Spring Festival!  Today ushered in the Year of the Rabbit, and we celebrated with gusto.  When I realized that Spring Festival was going to be a daycare day for Esther, I briefly thought about keeping her home. It just didn't seem in keeping with the spirit of the festival, which is very much about family togetherness, to send her away from me for the morning.  Then I thought about how she is always asking me to come in to daycare with her, and I had the bright idea of asking if I could come in and do a lesson on Chinese New Year with Esther's class.  Her teachers were enthused about the idea, so I duly prepared a lesson and all three of us went in to the university together this morning.  Esther was disappointed when I left her eating breakfast and went downstairs to get my craft materials prepped, but when her class came down later she was thrilled to have me as her teacher.  I talked a little bit about what the children would be doing to celebrate if they were in China, showed the Nihao Kailan Chinese New Year episode, helped them make a dragon craft which turned out really cool, let them dance their dragons around to Chinese music, and then figured out what zodiac animal each child is (they were all dogs or pigs).  The kids didn't seem particularly interested in the animal part, but Esther really latched onto that this year and informed several people proudly this afternoon that she is a pig.  Oh, she also wore a rabbit shirt (conveniently given to her for Christmas by her Aunt Susie) in honor of the year of the rabbit, as well as a festive New Year jacket that she took off after about a minute and a half because "it's making me sweaty."  I brought a camera to the daycare, but was too occupied to take any pictures.

In the afternoon we made rabbit cookies, decorated them, and took plates of them over to our nearest neighbors to wish them a happy Chinese New Year.  I did get pictures of this part of the day!

My initial idea was to ice the rabbits with white icing and put on Smarties for eyes, nose, and mouth.  It was something Esther could do and have fun doing, and it was very cute.  But smarties and Indian spices, I discovered, taste nasty together.  (Good thing we taste-tested!)  

So I ended up parking Esther in front of a video while I carefully drew features on each bunny with icing.  Not exactly the family bonding activity I had in mind, but they did look darling.  Then we took them around to our neighbors, staying and chatting with several of them.  Cookies are not a traditional Spring Festival item, but actually, going round to give our neighbors good wishes and special food felt very appropriate, and was certainly fun.  We haven't been seeing as much of our neighbors since it's been cold and snowy, and it was nice to catch up.

We finished up our special day with a feast!  Well, it wasn't a real feast.  There were only three dishes (not counting the cookies), and two of them came to the table in their frying pans.  But we had jiaozi (dumplings), which are always a treat for us, especially since we rarely have them now that Tim is avoiding wheat.  Esther, in fact, got so excited about the fact that we were going to have dumplings that I'm thinking I should buy some to make when it's just her and me at home.  Here is a picture of our inelegant "feast," with Tim and Esther giving each other rabbit ears.

I hope you all have a happy and meaningful Year of the Rabbit!