Chinese New Year

We celebrated Chinese New Year on February 2. It just happened to be the same day we had a blizzard with 17.2 inches of snow. Thankfully, my parents and my sister and her family live close, so we were still able to have the party. Since we hosted a Chinese dinner for Mike's family for Hope's birthday, we hosted a Chinese dinner for my family on Chinese New Year. I'm still a novice at this, but I tried to be as traditional as I could. I had fresh flowers and a bowl of oranges, which symbolize good luck. I decorated with red streamers and lanterns, which is the color of good luck in China. We had dumplings, which symbolize prosperity. And we passed out red envelopes with money in them for the children. Next year I hope to make some of the dishes, but this year I was happy enough to buy them from a local restaurant. Here are some pictures: