Festelavn

On Sunday, we celebrated Festelavn with several of our Danish (and other) friends. It's the Danish version of Halloween in that you dress up in costume. The celebration takes place before Lent - the last chance to eat lots of goodies before the fasting of Lent season. I'm told the tradition is to fast for all 40 days, no meat the entire time.

A game we played was hitting the "cat" in the barrel. In the old days a live cat was inside. We opted for pictures of cats painted on the outside with candy inside (like a piñata). Danish pastries were also a special treat!

It was a cold day with winter coat, hat & mitten over the costumes, but was great fun with friends!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! The family got big heart cookies... just like I did when I lived at home - carrying on your tradition, Mom! :)

Guess they weren't fully dry before I stacked them for storage... the names rubbed off, but they still taste good!

I wanted to see what Alex would do. He wasted no time digging in (glad I didn't drop the camera on my rush to pry it away from him)! I won't get put in jail for bad parenting if his 1st solid food was a candy sprinkle, will I...?

Small things...

A Chinese friend stopped by the other day, giving the kids each a red envelope with 10 RMB (about $1.50). This is a very common tradition for the Chinese New Year.

As I came home from work, Jacquelyn ran up to me to tell me about her money. She said "Now Daddy doesn't have to give us his money at church anymore. We can put in our own!"

Happy Valentine's Day!

Big Boy Alex

Yesterday Alex took his 1st drinks from a sippie cup. He doesn't do well with a bottle anymore - just chews on it - so I gave him a cup. He grabbed it with both hands and brought it right to his mouth. He figured out how to drink from it pretty quickly.

He also sat in his highchair for the 1st time. He sat & chewed on toys with the kids & I cut out valentine cookies!

Flashback

Snapped this photo during Jacquelyn's nap this weekend. It looks like perfect 1970's hair!

Happy Chinese New Year!

The 15 day Chinese New Year celebration ended with fantastic sights on Monday. I heard the 1st firecrackers at 6:30AM and they went solid until after midnight (and I'm NOT joking... it was solid firecrackers / fireworks all day and night). As I was putting photos on Picasa (I'm finally up to date!), fireworks were going crazy out our window. These fireworks were set off at the front of our neighborhood. Happy Spring Festival!