Beautiful Life Made Easy: Chinese New Year love

Wednesday, 29 January 2014

Chinese New Year love

This past weekend was full of celebrations.

Where little people got dressed up, packed up and taught about a culture that we're still learning about alongside them.

Chinese New Year is quickly becoming one of my favourite holidays of the year.

And when we were invited to celebrate Chinese New Year with my brother in law (Jeff's) entire extended family, we were beyond honoured to be included.

So what do you do when you're trying to teach your children about traditions and a culture that you're still learning about yourself? Well...you Google it of course.

So I spent literally hours online late at night researching Chinese New Year--what to wear, what words or symbols are associated with it, how to get those Chinese symbols just right (especially when writing on fondant with an edible pen) and what traditions we need to be sure to teach our children about this special holiday.

So after hours of research and then a million more hours creating detailed fondant pieces for the cupcakes that I was bringing to the big celebration...

and trying to create the perfect looking 'noodles' out of icing and fondant (yes there really is a cupcake hidden under there!)...

I came up with some Chinese New Year treats that not only represented this holiday (and the year of the horse)...

but it also represented our desire to teach not only Oliver about the traditions and importance of his culture...but also Terry's and my desire to teach our own kids as well. Because Oliver's extended family is essentially our extended family. So we're all learning together.

And this lady right here...Auntie Jax (Jeff's sister) was the lovely host of this celebration--and she definitely pulled out all of the stops.

She had crafts galore for the kids...

dragon masks...

and dragon scales...

and cousin love...

and beautiful decorations all made for a perfect afternoon.

And the food?

Well...it was beyond delicious.

And when two families come together, new friends are made over tables full of treats...

and traditions like the handing out of red envelopes full of money are carried out and taught to little people who are thrilled to get special gifts from their wonderful Auntie Jax.