The Year of the Rat continues

As mentioned in the previous blog entry, the wonderful thing about our Chinese New Year celebration schedule is that we get to do it multiple times and continue to spend time with extraordinary friends. This past weekend was our yearly celebration with our travel group. And like past years, this bash was hosted in wonderful fashion by Ron and Wendy. This gathering brought together five of the travel group families, as well as a couple of families that were part of an earlier travel by the hosting family.

The house was festively decorated and the food, all painstakingly prepared by Wendy, was in abundance -- and just out of this world. There was certainly no shortage of refreshments, chow, and great desserts.

From the very first moments upon arriving, Su was greeted by her special friends and immediately ran off to start playing together. You wouldn't know that it had been months since they'd last seen each other. Members of the travel group continued to arrive, filling the house with good cheer and (with each additional child) that much more noise. It was certainly a "charged" environment. Everyone was in particularly good spirits.

The evening was capped off with a dragon parade, colorfully prepared and colored by the kids, who draped the long paper figure over their heads and stomped around the house, feet puncturing the rolls of packing ("popping") wrap laid out in front of them to guide their journey around the admiring parents.

After quite a bit more playing, everyone started to slowly exit. As usual, we seemed to be the last ones there. The true sign of a good time. Even at the late hour, Su still didn't want to leave. Of course, we had to explain that a good guest is one that will eventually leave!

Despite the tired exterior, Su somehow managed to stay awake in the car during the 35 minute trip home. But once home, it was quickly off to bed and followed by a VERY lengthy time in bed. Actually, the same was true for ALL of us.