Gong Xi Fa Cai!

We had a big party to usher in the year of the rat. We cooked up a storm and had more than 12 dishes. Thanks to Emil, our head chef, we made pork & vege dumplings, fried yellow noodles with chives, fish 3 ways - steamed, sauteed & baked, 4 vege dishes (seasoned "big head vege", cucumber/daikon/jellyfish combo, garlic green beans and mustard greens with shitake mushroom), fried "new year cake", lamb stew/soup, Antje made delicious pink guava cake, and friends bought roast duck and chicken..I can't even name them all. The biggest hit of all was our new PS3 game - Rock band. I think everyone had fun and it was a great way to start this Chinese New year!


GuiZhi (KC) printed out some auspicious chinese characters for decoration. This one reads "Fortune" (Fu).


This reads "Spring" (Chun). They both are upside down to symbolize "arrival of".


Will hard at work on the dough for dumplings.




YuanZhou trying his hands at the dough. He looks the part.


He may not feel the part. "Its tiring!"




Emil and his dishes.


I helped!


Nicole and Giles to the rescue.


Sneaking in a song or 2 while cooking. Slackers!




Traditionally, the color red represents good luck.


We went all out with red balloons, red streamers, red napkins, red plastic cups, plates and bowls.


Some of us even wore red. Emil's socks were red. Subtle.
















Will and I gave out red packets ("Hong Bao") with lottery tickets!


"Did I win?"


"I won $2! Woohoo!"




Rocking it out with "Rock Band".




Hit it Amy!




Of course we played Mahjong!


"Hmmm.....big money big money..."