fathers day 2012 magazine: Happy Chinese New Year!!

It's the Year of the Dragon!

Yep... those of my three crazy children,

posing in front of a Chinese New Year display at the mall near our home.

We had decided to stay put during the Chinese New Year, though many of the other expats are vacationing away from China this week. We were told that there would be fireworks.... LOTS of fireworks. That was no joke. Here is a video I took from our apartment window (from the 24th floor) around 11:45pm last night.

The Chinese LOVE fireworks!

You can buy these fireworks year-round, but in preparation of the CNY, you can find stands selling boxes and boxes on every street corner. Don't think you'll be paying the big bucks for these either! The displays shooting off closer to our building can be purchased for about $15 USD a box (with 50 rockets inside).

Here are some great shots I managed to capture...

I have been told by my Ayi (I like to call her the "other wife", as she cooks, cleans, takes care of the children, does the laundry and ironing... etc.) the Chinese celebrate the CNY with fireworks, food, playing games, food, fireworks, and more food. No work! While we give gifts of all sorts for Christmas, the Chinese give gifts of money and clothing. So in honor of the CNY, we gave our children money in the traditional red envelopes.

You should never give an amount with a '4' as that means 'death' in Chinese. It wouldn't be a very nice gift to give a wish of death, right? However, the number '8' is very lucky in Chinese, so giving a gift of 88RMB (about $13USD) or 888RMB (about $130) would be very well received.

So in honor of the Year of the Dragon,

I'm sharing some great Dragon Inspirations.