We attended an exciting Chinese New Year celebration this weekend to kick off the Year of the Rat. It was hosted by our local Families With Children From China program and the Asian Children Mentoring Program at the University of Georgia. I had a good time seeing many of my friends from China and dressing up in some traditional Mandarin attire. Mama, Baba and Xavier were there too and had lots of fun.
Xavier and I took a moment to allow Mama to take some pictures of us in front of the dragon decorations.
OK, I'm already bored with this. Please let me get up and join in the festivities!!!! There are all sorts of things to do: arts and crafts, face painting, dancing, and games to play.
The decorations included dragons, beautiful flowers, lots of gold coins and oranges - all symbolic of prosperity and blessings in the new year.
Xavier had a great time with some of the UGA Asian Mentors who were teaching him how to play with this Asian toy.
Xavier did a great job learning how to get this thing moving!
Some of the mentors did face painting. I didn't know what to think about this at first. 
But after I saw another little girl get her face painted, I decided to do it. I wanted a nice red heart on my face. Baba helped me keep really still while Xavier watched.
This is one of my friends who is pretty close to my age. He came to America from China last year. 
The mentors put up a sign that had the word "love" written in several Asian languages. The second one from the left is "ai" which means "love" in Mandarin. 
We had a lot of fun dancing and playing with one another on the stage. I am on the far right seriously investigating some balloons (yes, I have a fascination with them).
I am just taking in some of the festivities and watching everyone dancing on the stage. The Asian Mentors brought some excellent music for us!
I've got some balloons!!!!!!!!
What does that girl have? A microphone! Ooh, we all want to take a turn with that.
It's almost my turn at the microphone! What should I say?
We are intrigued by this thing!
See my red envelope full of gold coins? 
The Asian Mentors seemed to have a great time playing with us. I can't wait until my mentor is assigned to me! It's a wonderful way to help those of us to keep our birth culture fresh in our minds. It's like a "Big Brothers/Big Sisters" especially for Asian children!
I was so tired after all this activity, I fell asleep the moment we returned home. Happy Chinese New Year everyone!
2 comments:
Awwwwwww those are just the best! I love how you guys celebrated Chinese New Year!
Happy New Year Mei-Ling! You look beautiful in your Mandarin garb and what a fun celebration that was!
Mommy, Daddy and Xavier look fantastic too!
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