Saturday, January 28, 2012

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Tonight, we finished our celebrations of the New Year with a great dinner with our China Angels and dance performances by our girls. 

BEFORE we started eating, we took advantage of the cute set up for photos...











After dinner, it was time to change into our dance costume...



Then, we lined up for the dragon dance!  The kids line up by province.  Emma was the only one from her province tonight.






 OUr friend Dave was the ring leader tonight...what a hoot!




Emma was a bit timid parading around the room...


Then, when she saw Dave in his "get-up" and the dragon, she was terrified - screaming bloody murder.  The rest of the parade was spent like this...


At the end of the parade, the kids lined up by bubble wrap and they counted down to the new year, then all the kids jumped on the wrap and it sounded like fireworks! 
Then kids had a blast with that. 
Well, not mine of course, but the rest of them did!  ;)


Two daughters of my dear friends, Bonnie and Bill, sang a precious song together.  It was a very good thing I was backstage for this or I would have been a sobbing mess.  Sweet girls!

Now it was time for Emma's group...The Dancing Pandas.  They are all so precious - ranging from 20 months to 5 years.  We have practiced nearly every Saturday since October.  During the practices, Emma would eventually warm up and do the motions.  Not so much tonight...



Doesn't she look happy?








Once the chopsticks were given out, she warmed up a bit...


...but not much...


Yes, mine is the one standing when the others are sitting...




...and sitting when the others are standing!



A final picture with Nana, myself, Emma, and my dear friend Ada.   
Ada is from Hubei province in China. 
She and another lady, Dora, accepted the chance to come to America and teach Chinese. 
Ada teaches at my school.  Dora teaches at the high school.
Ada has such a sweet and tender heart - the kids at our school love her. 
She loves Emma and Emma is pretty smitten with her as well! 
Ada and Dora joined us tonight to celebrate the new year.  Ada was sweet enough to take my camera and be the photographer.  That let me keep up with Emma and have one less thing to keep up with for the night!

It was a fabulous night and a great way to complete our week of celebrations!

2 comments:

Amy Maze said...

omg! love the pics of her doing the opposite of everyone else. a mind of her own??? there is someone in my house like that too! those outfits are adorable on all the little girls. so cute!

Catherine said...

Your little Emma is adorable! What fun to see her on stage with the other girls!

What a wonderful celebration this is! I wish we had something more like this in our area! How blessed you are to have this wonderful place for yourself and Emma to celebrate her Chinese heritage!