Gung Hay Fat Choi!

This year's Chinese New Year celebration brought back lots of memories of my own childhood and my love of this holiday.  Since it fell on my mom's birthday weekend, we got to spend a lot of time with my extended family, giving Ella lots of opportunity to get to know her relatives (some of whom she was meeting for the first time).  It was especially fun watching her grab the red envelopes offered to her, though she was more interested in eating them than what was inside.  She definitely didn't know what to do with all the attention she was being showered with, but she really enjoyed all the festivities and commotion that my family can create when we get together.

Pink is the new red, apparently. 

With her Po-Po, who LOVED having a little one to celebrate the New Year with.

Gambling is synonymous with Chinese New Year in my family.  We played many rounds of Bingo.

THIS makes me nostalgic for my childhood.  We used to play this dice game every year--and LOTS of money was always exchanged.

I showed Ella around my parents house.  It was her first real tour since usually just visits downstairs.

As much as we tried, we couldn't get her to nap at my parents'.  So after a long afternoon of lots of excitement, she was knocked out for two hours when we got home.