Gong Xi Fa Cai! Kung Hei Fat Choi! The year of the rat is upon us! We've been prepping Mia over the past few days with her latest book, My First Chinese New Year by Karen Katz. And she was very careful to follow all the proper customs: cleaning up the house, (being careful not to sweep out any good luck), buying flowers and a tangerine tree at the market, putting on a nice new red dress, savoring lai see packets, and watching a festive lion dance.

We even bought a branch of the "Five Generations" fruit. In Chinese the blessing of this fruit signifies "five generations in one household". Between Grandpa and Mia we've got 4 now so I guess we've still got a few years (at least 30!) to go on that prophecy. :)