Gung Hay Fat Choy!!!!

What a great day - it is cold and blustery today (as Pooh Bear would say!!). Silly me, I made plans to have bubble tea this morning with my friend Tania and we decided to walk and then meet downtown. Yikes, it was COLD. I had my raincoat on and ended up with my hood strings pulled so tightly that I could hardly see out of the little space I had left!!! The bubble tea was nice and warm, we walked around and checked out stores and then met Shawn for Dim Sum at Don Mee. Yummy!!!! I took some pictures of our celebrations in the oldest Chinatown in Canada.

These are the dragon dancers going from storefront to storefront, bringing good luck to store owners in the new year. There is a paper by the wheels of the bike and this is where they lit off the firecrackers!!! The bike was fine. After each dance at each storefront, the firecrackers are lit and the dragon dances to the next storefront to the sound of the band, pictured here.
These guys wear the dragon "pants" and make a good bit of noise!! Being 5ft 2, I was able to sneak in front and take these great photos.

This photo is a picture of the gates into our beautiful Chinatown and as you can see, it was a busy place today. We had to wait 45 min to get a seat at our favorite restaurant!! I also wanted to share this photo of the Chinese school in our town. It is hard to see but there are pictures on all of the windows, created by the children, to welcome in the year of the pig. So very festive. At work, I have a wonderful sign wrapped around my office door that is going to bring good luck in the coming year.

As an aside, for some reason, this past weekend I keep seeing us in China this summer, meeting Isabel. Yesterday during my massage/reflexology treatment, I kept seeing a little silhouette of a baby wrapped in a blanket. I didn't see her face, just the outline of her hair and the blanket. So, even though the estimates say next fall into winter, I see us going a little sooner than that. When I said this to Shawn, he said "Oh no, we're not ready for her yet!!!". Well, I don't know about him but I certainly am!!!!!!!!!!