Our Chinese New Year festivities and other highlights from the week (7 Quick Takes)

~1~

Happy Chinese New Year! Xin Nian Kuai Le! Gung Hay Fat Choy! Welcome to the Year of the Ox. I usually spend weeks preparing for Chinese New Year, and we see many friends at multiple gatherings. This year, we are celebrating just as a family of four—you know, the way we do for every holiday and event now.

Still, I did order Year of the Ox paper goods, and I told our boys they could be in charge of the meals for the day. They picked lo mein and won ton soup for lunch and hibachi (carried in) for dinner. You are probably thinking that hibachi isn’t Chinese, which is true. Still, John and I ate hibachi in China the night before we met our younger son—the Ox in our family—so it seemed appropriate.

Last year at our Chinese New Year party we were just starting to worry about coronavirus in the United States. I remember we had guests who came to our party because the celebrations they had planned to attend in Washington, D.C., were canceled. We never knew that would be our last party for such a long time.

I keep hoping maybe this summer we can have a Chinese New Year picnic of some sort, maybe with burgers on the grill in honor of the Ox. I haven’t given up hope!

~2~

This week was a bit of marathon. Somehow, we didn’t get our usual Chinese New Year decorations in place, and it wasn’t feeling like a celebratory kind of day. Then my friend Jen dropped off a Chinese New Year card and “bull’s eyes,” as in Caramel Creams. Then our 11-year-old Ox’s godmother—arrived on our porch with the most amazing Ox cake you have ever seen.

I was thrilled. And I loved that my son was pleased and not at all surprised. Of course, Aunt Katie would come through with an exquisitely designed Ox cake.

The cake inspired John to pull out our Chinese lanterns, and I decorated quickly while he went to pick up dinner. We had a beautiful little celebration.

I’m sad we aren’t getting to host people for Chinese New Year, but our friends definitely made it a more festive day. I mean, just look at that Ox cake!

~3~

Our fifth grader’s online schoolwork today was partly focused on Chinese New Year, which made me so happy. I can’t figure out fifth-grade math and I don’t even know all the right wording to help with ELA, but Chinese New Year? That’s my kind of curriculum.

“Let’s just go straight to the questions and see if you know the answers,” I said.

So, we did. What color are the traditional Chinese New Year envelopes? Oh, they’re red. Our fifth grader didn’t have any trouble there.

Just don’t ask me to help with decimals.

~4~

Luckily, Chinese New Year is a two-week-long celebration. So, even though I didn’t feel fully ready to celebrate on the first day of the Year of the Ox, we still have time. I’m hoping to make homemade dumplings, chocolate cows, cow cookies, and who knows what else.

~5~

I decided to cut my hair last weekend—for the second time during the pandemic. I’m not sure whether my haircutting skills are improving, but my haircutting confidence has certainly grown. I can imagine a day when I will go back for a professional haircut, and I know at least one of our sons can’t wait to have someone who’s not his mom cut his hair, but I think it’s working out fine for our family for now.

~6~

We’ve been wanting to use my new mandolin for other recipes, and I found this Cheesy Hasselback potato gratin recipe on the New York Times site.

The potatoes were so thin and delicate. It was delicious and maybe a little overly decadent.

We enjoyed it during our mini-Super Bowl party and for leftovers for a couple days afterward.

Ah, leftovers. SImply the best.

~7~

The other day Instagram suggested I might like to follow an account run by my doll, Beansie. I have had Beansie since I was a toddler, and I would have thought that I knew her fairly well, but I had no idea she had an Instagram account. That was news to me! I reached out to my sister who sometimes uses Beansie’s Facebook account since she doesn’t have one herself.

My sister said she must have created the account for Beansie during the pandemic to keep an eye on Instagram, but she didn’t actually remember doing it. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed the idea that Beansie may just have done that herself.

These are certainly strange times. But at least they can be entertaining times, too.

Find more quick takes on Kelly’s blog, This Ain’t the Lyceum, and happy new year!

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