I know I know I am a week late with this post but I didn’t manage to finish it until now due to all kind of silly reasons. In the whole past week I could read from so many bloggers how they celebrated New Year so here I go with our tiny “party”.
This was the first time since 2013 that we actually celebrated again as we had just no time for the past years. Even before that we usually never did anything special so we always ended up watching the CCTV New Year Gala. Only once we participated in some bigger event and it was just a few weeks after we got together in 2010. Back then we went to the Chinese New Year Festivities in Helsinki. Let me just tell you that it was very very cold back then and not the most enjoyable experience I had in my life (due to the weather!). A couple of years ago I even wrote a little blog post about it which also shows that not much (nothing) has really changed on how we spend New Year.
So what happened this year? First of all we kind of messed up the actual date for the New Year. My wife and all her Chinese friends 
here in town thought it would be on Saturday the 06.02.2016. Imagine the surprise when my wife heard from one of her customers on that Saturday that there won’t be any New Year Gala as it wouldn’t start until Sunday… this shows pretty well what living abroad for so many years does to someone when it comes to such big festivities. Anyways after a disappointing Saturday we started Sunday with preparing for the overeating day. My wife prepared several dishes while I was busy entertaining our little Monkey/ Nathan. Pictures were taken, food was enjoyed, the CCTV New Year Gala was watched and many video chats had to be endured during that day. As you can see it was a pretty calm day for us especially as my wife didn’t had to work and thus we spend the entire day together. Besides that Nathan was finally able to wear some of the clothes my wife bought for him in China last year. Only bad thing about the dress was that the hat didn’t fit anymore, Nathan just got too much brain inside.
For the next year I hope that we will be either able to travel to China for this event as I would love to witness it once in my life personally or to celebrate with other people together. Sure it is nice to spend the whole day together as a family but to have some bigger gatherings once every few years wouldn’t hurt either.
Where there some Lunar New Year events near your home?
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Crazy Chinese Family 
Ethan – such a cutie in the Chinese dress!
It is always fun to try to find some clothes like those in China. We had good quality ones and then also some which were really poorly made
Admittedly I didn’t quite celebrate CNY properly this year. I kinda forgot. You have to understand my birth family lives in another province..3,000+ km west of me. Then my partner was in Vancouver to deal with stuff at the time.
We did make up for it a few days ago even though dearie was hacking with a cold.
We didn’t get around celebrating for several times in thepast years. Either we were too busy with work or other things just came up.
Good that you were able to celebrate a bit later on 🙂
Enjoy year of monkey. He’s clever. 🙂
Oh, that food looks delicious!
It was very delicious however it was just too much. We had dinner and lunch for the next day still from the leftovers…
if someone told me to call the crazy grandma I think i would prefer the gala 😀
Oh don’t you remind me on those calls. Felt like years hearing that demonic voice and to make matters worse we might have to see her in real life in a few months again…
Nathan looks so cute on that dress! And the food looks so delicious – a pity I don’t have any Chinese friends here 😀
Thank you 🙂
I am just glad that my wife can make such delicious dishes
If it makes you feel any better, you posted about CNY faster than me as I am still working on my post. And as with getting the date wrong, the same happens to me – Easter usually comes and goes and I am none the wiser.
Nathan looks adorable in his outfit – such a sweet boy!
I am also terrible when it comes to get Easter right. Only once I remembered it as it was Nathans baptism back in 2014 on easter Sunday.
Nathan is just ‘too’ cute. I still miss the Chinese New Year in Beijing. It was loud (unfortunately every day and night for the whole twenty three or so days) but I still loved it. And of course Beijing was so quiet with all Chinese families visiting their birth provinces and migrants returning to their families. I liked the thought of the hard working migrants spending much deserved time with their families.
I am hoping to experience new year in China some day. The migrant workers definitely deserve that time with there families. It is a really cruel life when people are forced to life for nearly entire year far away from their family because of work
I didn’t celebrate CNY! I have never watched the gala I think, it is too similar to the new year gala in Spain which is also boring haha. My bf watched it in the hotel in Kyoto but I fell asleep…
For next year you have to buy a tiger hat (虎头帽) for Nathan! (A XL one if his brain is too big haha). They are so cute!! I got a pair for my 4 year old twin cousins last year 🙂
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09.2.0.0.r6b3To&id=39014533468&_u=f7tn7be0b3b
Need to show that hat to my wife.
The new year gala is not that boring. Just some of the ‘theater performances’ can take really long time and then there is the problem for me that I don’t understand everything :p
Nice outfit!
How did you like the New Year Gala show?
The show is not that bad bit then again it tends to get better the more imported Tsingtao beer ends up in my body :p
Aww, Nathan looks so adorable in his CNY outfit! 🙂 Here, in Korea, we had a 5 day weekend, and the whole country was on the road traveling to visit their hometowns. We just stayed put in Seoul and had a big family gathering at my aunt’s house. My 4 month old got her first “sebeh” money though. So cute. Do they do that in China too? The bowing and giving of money for Lunar New Year?
I don’t know about the bowing but they give red pockets to family, friends and colleagues. In the end I don’t know too much about the traditions as I only experienced it here in Europe
The outfit fits Nathan very well. He looks very good in it, and very good posture too 😀 In Australia, there are CNY celebrations all throughout February and just yesterday there was a lot of lion dancing all day in the main Chinatown. Very packed and lots of people, I didn’t go near it because once you get in the crowd, it is hard to move anywhere! Apart from the reunion dinner at my parents house, that was pretty much about it. It was work as usual for me here 🙂
Here in my hometown is nothing but then again here is only a small Asian population which only started to increase greatly in the past eight years. So perhaps in another ten years they might have some events 🙂
About Nathans posture, I am trying my best to watch out so he won’t get any problems later on
You could always have your own lion dance or Chinese singing or dancing next CNY. That could be a fun way to celebrate it at home 🙂
That outfit is so adorable! I never know really how to celebrate the regular New Year either. Especially, now with a baby. I guess indeed just eat and watch tv, and dress up your little one ;).
I guess the best part is to dress up the little baby 😀
Are you sure when you said you hope to travel to China for next years CNY?? You know, people go crazier during the festive season, so I don’t know how you will perceive a crazier version of your Crazy Chinese Family! 😀
What a cutie in his little outfit! We’ve been suffering through Chinese New Year dragon druming for the past 2 months, so yes, they celebrate it here in Cambodia. 😛
It is always a bit of a naming matter with the new year. I remember in Finland many Asian students complained that it should be name lunar new year, not Chinese new year bit then again most western people only know about the name Chinese new year. I guess the lunar new year is celebrated pretty much all over Asia? Here in Europe the lunar calender only plays a minor role
True, true. Technically it is the Lunar New Year. Too many holidays! Ahhhh!
I should clarify, they’ve been practicing. *pulls hair*
Naww, look at that cute little guy! I was in Vietnam during Lunar New Year or Tet, as it’s called in Vietnam. We didn’t go to any celebrations, but we went to see some fireworks, which was fun. I also want to experience Chinese New Year celebrations in China someday, even though your own private Chinese New Year also sounds very nice and cozy 🙂
Though our New Year was very nice it would be still something else to celebrate with other people. Here in my hometown all Chinese we know were busy working during those days so it was a nono
Happy Lunar New Year to you all!! May the year bless you with good health, happiness and good fortune! Bet your wife made some amazingly delicious food 🙂 And how cute is Nathan in his outfit…. awwwww so precious!
Also, although we celebrate Chinese New Year, we don’t go to festivities because Le HATES the dragon dance…. A little but of a phobia LOL
The food was surely delicious and once again too much (we were eating it for two other days…). Nathan was also feeling comfortable in his clothes so it was nice that he ran around in them happily.
Here around are no new year festivities but I heard in Hamburg, the next biggest city, they got at least some kind of celebration at least until one or two years ago
If you travel to China during the festival, I recommend you go to countryside or small cities. The big cities are usually empty and all shops are closed. People will go back to their hometown to celebrate the holiday.
Oh we have been in China during mid autumn festival some years back. We do not really have any other possibility than going to a big city as my in-laws live in Xi’an
Happy New Year (belated!) And Nathan looks way too cute. 🙂
Just a bit late but then again some celebration are still going on 🙂
Haha! Good then! 🙂
Happy Chinese New Year. All the very best. Love Nathan’s outfit – he looks very smart. I enjoyed watching a very interesting TV programme about Chinese New Year, entitled ‘Chinese New Year The Biggest Celebration on Earth,’ There is a blog post about it on my blog… and a haiku for monkeys!! https://kyrosmagica.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/haiku-horizons-monkey/
Yes, I saw the blog post you have on your blog 🙂
This Lunar New Year is something really interesting and how it is celebrated very similar in many Asian countries