Gong Hay Fat Choy

Happy Chinese New Year!  This year marks the year of the Rabbit!  I was born in the year of the Rabbit, and they say it's supposed to be a prosperous year for us Rabbits.   Hopefully that translates into a prosperous garden bounty!  That would be fantastic.  Chinese New Year is the most celebrated holiday in China and among Chinese families throughout the world.  Traditionally, on New Year's Eve, most families celebrate with a festive dinner.  The hubs and I met my parents and my sister and her kids at our favorite Chinese restaurant near my parent's house, Noodle Chu Restaurant.  The meal was fantastic, among the dishes were stuffed fried tofu, Kung Pao chicken, beef with Chinese broccoli (gai-lan), curry beef, squid with sour mustard greens, and our usual favorites, sweet and sour pork chops and Chinese crispy chicken with prawn chips.  The food was divine!  Even though I am of Chinese descent, of all these dishes, I only know how to make 2 of them shown in this photo. Hahaha!  Terrible I know.  I should ask my dad to teach me, he's a professional Chinese Chef!

There are many traditions with Chinese New Year.  Traditional food, and traditional gifts.  After dinner, my parents gave us Red Envelopes that contains money.   It's tradition for adults or married couples to give Red Envelopes to kids or to juniors (single people who are younger than you).  The Red Envelopes signifies good luck, wealth and to keep the evil spirits away.  ;) Keeping up with tradition, I bought these pretty envelopes to give to my nieces and nephews.  I picked these envelopes because it had such pretty orchids on it.  Sometimes, I like to recycle the envelopes I receive and use them as seed packets.  Don't they make pretty seeds packets??  But, shhhh, don't tell my mom.  She would be mortified if she knew I used these to hold seeds!  You'll also notice two Mandarin oranges on the envelope as well, these represent Good Luck and fortune.  It's tradition to get Mandarin oranges, clementines or tangerines as gifts. 

My parents gave us 6 tangerines for good luck.  At dinner, the restaurant gave us a plateful of tangerines for dessert.  I ate an entire one by myself because it was so sweet and refreshing!

Yesterday, I went to the post office to get some stamps so that I could mail out some bills.  To my surprise, they had these great Mandarin orange stamps for Chinese New Year.  Aren't they so pretty?  Even if you don't celebrate the lunar new year, it's still nice to see some colorful fruit on an envelope!