Happy Chinese New Year! Welcome to the Year of the Rabbit (7 Quick Takes)

~1~

Chinese New Year is absolutely my favorite holiday. It’s a chance to celebrate a new beginning and a special animal in the zodiac by connecting with friends and family and food. You don’t have to worry about gifts. What’s not to love?

The Year of the Rabbit is supposed to be a quieter, gentler year, offering time and space for contemplation and relaxation. Whether that will be the case remains to be seen, but those sound like great goals for any year.

~2~

We have thrown larger Chinese New Year parties in the past, and I love bringing family and friends together for a big animal-themed bash. We’ve been so busy, though, and the Chinese New Year came close on the heels of Christmas for us this year, so we kept it small.

We invited our friend Katie, who happens to be a Rabbit in addition to being our younger son’s godmother, to join us for dinner with her family.

Katie makes the most amazing animal cakes. This was her ninth consecutive cake, uninterrupted by the pandemic since she socially-distance-dropped off an Ox cake for her godson during his year in 2020.

Her Rabbit cake was extraordinary, as we knew it would be. The body of the bunny is a 9-inch round cake on its side. Isn’t that amazing? The bunny’s body is Funfetti inside, and the base is chocolate with chocolate frosting.

An Ox happened to snag a marshmallow off the cake within minutes of its entering the home, but that sort of thing happens on Chinese New Year, and you just have to accept it.

~3~

Every year, I try to add a few decorations to our collection, especially since they wear out over time. This year I added a couple of rabbits just for this year and some hangings. I ran to the grocery store to buy a few items to get us through the week, and when I came home, my husband and younger son had decorated the house.

That’s another advantage of Chinese New Year that the decorating can happen during a grocery run. Such low stress! I pulled into the driveway and saw how wonderful the house looked and was just filled with gratitude for my husband.

John took the Christmas tree down and tucked away the last of the Christmas decor on Friday, so we are fully in Chinese New Year mode for the next two weeks.

~4~

What I didn’t do was give the house a full cleaning prior to the start of the New Year and make sure everyone had a fresh haircut. And now we can’t clean for a bit because we’ll sweep away the good luck. Works for me. Any tradition that encourages less housekeeping is welcome here.

~5~

At the grocery store, I picked up rabbit-themed items and encouraged our guests to pick one to take home. We will enjoy the leftovers ourselves during the Year of the Rabbit.

I hesitated before buying the Trix. My mother never let us eat artificial coloring, and though I have not maintained that policy in our household, these look just so colorful for a breakfast cereal. But they were on sale, along with the Annie’s products, perhaps because someone at the store is thinking of the Year of the Rabbit too. Maybe they will be a hit.

~6~

My brother and his six children called from New England to sing “Happy Chinese New Year to you” in the middle of our dinner, which was marvelous and quite entertaining.

Our family has a tradition of calling one another for birthday songs and sometimes anniversaries—and occasionally feast days, but that gets to be quite a bit.

This was unexpected and special.

~7~

You’re probably wondering about the food, and I can’t believe I didn’t take more photos of it. We really dove into dinner when it arrived.

I ordered three kinds of dumplings—the thinner-skinned ones with chicken inside that are steamed, and the thicker-skinned Mandarin-style pork dumplings, but I got some of those steamed and some of those fried. It might sound over-the-top, but dumplings are important to the celebration and symbolize wealth in the new year.

Then we had won ton soup, egg rolls, pork fried rice, chicken lo mein, General Tso’s shrimp, sweet and sour chicken, and this shredded beef and green bean dish that is just so delicious. Everything was totally delectable.

Two hours after we finished eating, my friend at the Chinese restaurant called to tell me that I had forgotten to pay when I placed the order. I felt terrible. In my excitement, I must have pressed “cash” instead of entering my credit card. And when the delivery person brought the food, she must have been so struck by the decorations and festivities that she just handed off our carton of food and left.

I paid over the phone and apologized again. The woman laughed and said, “It’s no problem. We know each other. And you always celebrate the Chinese New Year. Happy New Year, Rita!”

That made my night—and it reminded me of the friendly, gracious, beautiful encounters we had with the people in China when we traveled to adopt our sons back in 2009 and 2011—which was, in fact, the last Year of the Rabbit.

Happy Year of the Rabbit! May this be a blessed year for you and your family. Our Lady of China, pray for us.

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