A Chinese New Year....and a Missionary Opportunity.

It's the Year of the Horse!  We celebrated the Chinese New year with friends and great food.

The dragon mask is from a few years ago, but it's so cute and fun that Christine has the kids parade around using it every year...and they certainly don't object!

We've been attending this for a year or two and love the warm friendly fun with our dear friends.

Apparently fireworks are a HUGE deal in many of the Chinese celebrations.  I heard many stories of those who have lived there, namely the Mattson's but others too, who say that most nights for months on end you can hear in the distance fireworks going off.  It's either in celebration of a current, past or up-coming holiday.....needless to say fireworks are a BIG deal.
Christine has the brilliant idea to let the kids stomp on a package of bubble wrap in simulate the sound of the fireworks...it worked wonderfully...nice and LOUD!

In Chinese traditions, Grandma Beryl gives all the children a red envelope filled with a "treasure" (money--a gold dollar coin this year).  They have to say ___________ and thank-you in chinese to get the treasure.

Connor's looking quite nice.....here's why.....

On this particular Saturday, I had the opportunity to share the gospel with Brandon Kessinger. Brandon's family had gone inactive several years ago and he has now decided to take the lessons with the missionaries. On this night I was able to join them. We had an excellent lesson. I know I felt the spirit, and I'm fairly certain everyone else did too. Why was I in a suit for this? The missionaries wear suits, so I needed to as well.

All the kids....giving their best silly faces!