Celebrating Chinese New Year in Sweden (Part 1)

Growing up in Singapore, Chinese New Year was always buzzing with activities.  Chinese New Year songs were played all over the little island, goodies stacked along every walkway outside every shop, buying new clothes, new shoes, getting new haircuts, baking cookies..... so much to do! And most importantly, it was always HOT in Singapore.

So when the scenery I see when I look out of the window is this...

It is quite easy to forget that Chinese New Year is just around the corner! Especially when there is no public holiday, nobody playing Chinese New Year songs.....

However, when you're a parent, you'd do anything just for the kids.  Especially in our situation.  Our kids have no recollection of celebrating CNY in Singapore (the 2 bigger ones I mean), their memories are made up of old photos taken on a particular year when I remembered to take out the camera. To make sure that they don't forget that a part of their roots belongs to that culture, I try to remind them in my own way.  And the first way is to get into the CNY spirit and up go the decorations!

I gave Angel some red packets and showed her some YouTube videos and she came up with these!  Good job!

But that was all she did!!!!! So I had to roll up my sleeves and made those which I wanted to give to my friends.  

I "parked" Ivan in front of the computer with his minecraft world (or "minecrap" according to Chris....)....

And I threw Chris the tablet for him to watch his children's video on YouTube....

And get down to work! (ok, I originally planned to have the tablet in front of me, so that I can watch videos and craft at the same time.... forgetting that I have a big "plaster" whom I need to distract, if I ever want to get anything done!)

I also brought out some previous years decorations and put up some new ones which my dear friends sent me all the way from home!  

It's the year of the snake! These are so cute, though they look kinda like baby dinosaurs...

Bought 2 pots of flowers...

After changing the curtains, even the shadow reflected on the wall looks Chinese New Year-ish!

I think the apartment is ready for CNY now!