This post is woefully belated -- the Chinese New Year was February 19 -- but I didn't want our celebration to go unrecorded, especially since my brother moved to China just a few months ago! He has lived in various parts of Asia for several years, but this is his first job in China. I planned to celebrate the New Year before he even took the job, but knowing we were celebrating "with" Uncle Brian in a small way made it that much more special!
We read one random non-fiction book on the Chinese New Year, thanks to the library's seasonal displays, and did two crafts:
Chinese Hand Drum: paint the outside of two paper plates red (the lucky color in China, a fact Owen pounced on and declared about every red item he saw for the next three days). Attach something -- the site says small jingle bells; I used small beads -- to the end of some string; attach string to each side of plate (I taped and then stapled over the tape). Attach some sort of rod -- the site suggests a wooden dowel; I used unsharpened red pencils, because I roll with what I have) to the inside of one plate, then staple the two plates together. The instructions are much clearer at the site linked, especially since I forgot to take any pictures after the initial painting. Sorry about that.
We read one random non-fiction book on the Chinese New Year, thanks to the library's seasonal displays, and did two crafts:
Chinese Hand Drum: paint the outside of two paper plates red (the lucky color in China, a fact Owen pounced on and declared about every red item he saw for the next three days). Attach something -- the site says small jingle bells; I used small beads -- to the end of some string; attach string to each side of plate (I taped and then stapled over the tape). Attach some sort of rod -- the site suggests a wooden dowel; I used unsharpened red pencils, because I roll with what I have) to the inside of one plate, then staple the two plates together. The instructions are much clearer at the site linked, especially since I forgot to take any pictures after the initial painting. Sorry about that.
You can see the string and beads on the left side of Levi's drum.
Despite my lack of pictures and clear explanation, the drums worked quite well. You roll the rod (or pencil, in our case) between your hands, causing the beads-on-string to hit the center of the plate. You know, all Karate Kid style.
We also made Chinese lanterns, which was even more of a disaster than the makeshift drums. I like to think of myself as a reasonably intelligent human being, but I don't have one engineering-type bone in my body, and I could not figure out which way to cut and fold these ridiculous lanterns. It took three tries, and still one of them is beyond pathetic. I'm not even going to try to explain. Just go to the site, scroll down a bit through the advertisements for frozen Chinese appetizers, and see if you can figure it out better than I did!
Clearly, the one on the left was my third try. By the fourth try, on the right, I had sort of figured it out. Sort of.
I'm not sure what Owen is doing with his hands.
And, despite my above disdain for the frozen Chinese appetizer advertisements, I did pick up a package of frozen egg rolls to go along with our honey sesame chicken and rice.
After dinner, the boys staged an impromptu parade, Silas leading the way with one of the lanterns and the big boys making as much noise as they could with their hand drums. My brother says the fireworks in China that week were crazy big and loud; we did as much as we could in the house! We miss you, Uncle Brian!!
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