Have A Tiggerific New Year!

I had forgotten how I used to celebrate Chinese new year after I gave birth to Charlotte. I felt each new year celebration was so stressful and tiring because of taking care of a baby. It was too many people in the house, too warm, too noisy, too sleepy...while everybody was getting the bit of reunion, I was in the room feeding, milk pumping or putting the baby to bed. But this year I have enjoyed the new year celebration, reunion to every bit of it, and Charlotte is able to mix with her cousins and played too.

Charlotte's school gave out a task to all the children and have them to complete during CNY. Everyone of them is taking back a 福慧娃娃, it is a handmade donation paper box that the children are asked to collect donation from their relatives while they are receiving the "ang pow". The donation is for the Haiti victims and the kid has to explain to the adults of what is the purpose of that box. They are also asked to sing a song after people had donated. The lyric says:

福慧娃娃来到门前
合十感恩祝福连连
有钱出钱有力出力
善念齐聚送爱到海地

Charlotte took this task very seriously and she began her responsibility on the new year's eve. She brought the paper box to her grandparents' house and everybody she met she didn't forget to ask for the donation.

We think this is a very effective way to collect donation, we only hope that the authority will truly hand over the total collected amount to the victim and don't disappoint the children whom put in so much effort in carry out their responsibility.

I was surprised to know how daring Charlotte was when it was time for fireworks. As usual, Pat and his other brothers and sisters bought some for the kids to play. Charlotte enjoyed the "pop pop" and also the sparklers this year and she even dare to light it herself!

Trust me, there were so many pairs of eyes watching her when she was doing all these.


Not only that, Charlotte started "something" new this year...Guess what?

Her bedtime was stretched from 9.30pm to 1.30am over the past few days! I gotta put her back on the routine now, otherwise I will have big problem when school starts next week.

Happy Chinese New Year Everyone! Gong Xi Gong Xi!