Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Loosely translated, that means "Happy New Year." Literally, it means "Congratulations and have a prosperous and good year."

We celebrated Chinese New Year's Eve last night. Although my family is pretty Americanized, we do still celebrate the New Year.

So we ate noodles, which symbolize prosperity

and we bought narcissus, which symbolize prosperity

and we displayed tangerines and Chinese grapefruit, which symbolize prosperity

and we received red envelopes, which also symbolize prosperity.

Do you sense a theme here?

(Technically, I shouldn't be receiving red envelopes, since I'm married. But my parents still give them to me, because I apparently am their little girl forever. I'm definitely not complaining about that!)