warming up for the year of the ox-cow

Well, the weather forecast says that its supposed to warm up starting tomorrow and we can expect a beautiful weekend! I am ready!! The one positive to all the cold-weather-inside-the-house-bundling is the girls just look so cute -



This is post-breakfast Lydia, still in her pajamas and sporting a thick sweater with her winter hat. Oh yeah, and she's already wearing her wings!

In other big news, the lunar calendar new year is just around the corner. Yep, we're leaving the year of the rat in the dust, it's time to welcome the year of the ox. (My personal preference is to refer to last year as "year of the mouse" and the upcoming year as "year of the cow" - it just sounds better than "rat" and "ox".)

The celebrations will undoubtedly be much louder than I'd like - in fact, in our neighborhood every kid over the age of 7 has already lit approximately 15 firecrackers in preparation for the festivities. Might not sound like much, but we live in pretty dense housing, and it adds up to a lot of noise. Especially considering we're still ten days away from the big night.

The lunar calendar new year is next weekend - Sunday night is the "eve" and Monday is the first day of the ox-cow year. We'll celebrate by stockpiling the fridge with food and laying low for a few days. EVERYTHING closes - the market, restaurants, mini-marts, everything. Guess that's to give shop owners and restaurant cooks more time to set off firecrackers. Oh joy!



One more random tidbit to leave you with... just in case you inferred from my last post that our family has deep theological conversations day in and day out, you'll be glad to know that in the past two days Lydia has learned to say "woooo-hooooo doggie!'', which is one of Matt's favorite ways to respond to my post-dinner "ok everybody, it's time for some dessert". He says it because it makes the girls laugh. And start looking for the dessert. When Lydia said it last night we all busted out laughing. I love a talking toddler :)