part 1
part 2

I figured I would take advantage of the Chinese tradition of cleaning and sweeping out the bad in order to bring in the new year, so was able to get the kids to work around the house cleaning up for Sunday.

The typical tradition is to stay up until midnight on the eve of the new year and make jiaozi or Chinese dumplings. Since this wasn't something I was up to doing and preferred to have the kids in bed by that time of night, we reserved our big food celebration for Sunday night after church.

I thought we would keep the meal rather simple so Caleb wouldn't become too hyped up. When he gets overstimulated is when he tends to have melt-downs and I really didn't want to go there. Since he has also been out of control lately around other people, we chose to just keep the celebration to our immediate family. In spite of my best-laid plans,however, we ended up with 8 Chinese dishes, and he was just beside himself with excitement. When we set the table, we stacked oranges since oranges are a symbol for good luck and wealth. Caleb was so excited when he saw them, so I can only assume oranges played a part in his New Year celebrations in the past. I hid a coin in one of the jiao zi and made sure that he was the one who found it. Tradition states that whoever finds the gold coin will have luck for the coming year.

Six years ago, a friend gave me a CD of Chinese New Year music of gongs and cymbals. Alyssa put it in her CD player and turned it on when we were ready to eat. It broke my heart, because when Caleb heard the music he went running to the front window, looking out. I think he hoped for a New Year's parade with a lion or dragon, and he was disappointed to find that the music was not from outside, but only from a CD player.

As we ate, he asked me through mime if we would have firecrackers. When I told him yes, his face really lit up. Firecrackers are illegal where we live, so we don't ever buy bottle rockets or anything else that goes up in the sky. I would hate to advertise to the police which house they were coming from. We just buy the kind that pop loudly and "emit showers of sparks" as they say on the package. The kids loved the fireworks, but we only lit about 10 because the police station is only a mile from our home and I never know if one of our neighbors is going to decide to call them.

I'm sure our celebration didn't come close to what Caleb has experienced in China, but we gave it our best shot and he seemed to be thrilled. He went to bed one happy and contented little boy, counting the money from his red envelopes. He is very cautious of things that belong to him, often seeming worried that someone will take them. I am guessing that nothing was truly private in his orphanage, so his fears are not unfounded. He keeps his money in a little velvet pouch and when he went to bed, he tucked it inside the waistband of his pajamas. Sweet dreams, my son. May you have a blessed and prosperous new year.