What, suddenly we're Chinese???

Ok, I'm not sure how it happened, but we suddenly became Chinese.  Maybe for Joe, who is really the first generation born here, he's always been Chinese.  Although his Mexican-Cambodian-Filipino-Laotion exterior suggests otherwise.  But I know for Dina, she's about as Chinese as fortune cookies.  

But suddenly, come Chinese New Year, we all got Chinese up in here.  I did a little intel, and this is how it went down.  

Wyatt goes to a Mandarin immersion school now, where he is taught 50% in English, 50% in Mandarin.  Chinese culture is part of the curriculum and so of course, he learned about Chinese New Year.  He comes running home, and asks Dina, "What are we doing to celebrate Chinese New Year?!!!"  Like any good parent does, Dina deferred to Joe and said "Let's wait until your Dad gets home to decide."  In the meantime, she Wikipedia'd "Chinese New Year."  Pulling her bullet points from that, she covered the basics.

They cleaned the house (well, not really.  Dina had the kids sweep the floor.  She might have used the dustbuster.  But Hilda and her daughter, our lovely housecleaners, were charged with the actual tasks of cleaning).  

They made dumplings.  This was surprising.  Dina actually knew how to make dumplings.  But she kind of cheated because she made wontons, instead of steaming actual dumplings (which would have required her to buy steam baskets).

She bought some mandarins with the leaves on, found some Angry Bird red envelopes (oh! the commercialization of Chinese New Year!!!), and even went to the bank to get crisp one dollar bills.  Oh, in case you're wondering about the cows, that's Brownie and Spot and they were visiting for the weekend from Landon's preschool.

They went to dim sum with a bunch of friends.  Of course, Wyatt later told Joe that it was the "worst day of his life," but the dim sum was pretty good.  Don't you love 5 year olds?

 They made cookies.  Oh wait, this has nothing to do with Chinese New Year.

They ate long life noodles.  Doesn't Landon look cute here?  You'd never know what a terror he is from this photo.

 And fresh fish, too.

 Everybody wore good luck red.

Well, whatever we are, Happy New Year, Gung Hay Fat Choy, Xin Nian Kaui Le and yadda yadda yadda.  Now, where's my red envelope, people???