Chúc mừng năm mới (in a COVID year)

 

Today marks the start of Tết (pronounced "Thet"), which is the Vietnamese New Year and the start of spring based on the lunar calendar. It is usually celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year, falls in January or early February, and is celebrated for anywhere from three to fourteen days (this is the year of the ox)! I jumped back to a 2011 blog (the year I married into a Vietnamese family) to help me remember the "rules" and customs of this incredibly important holiday for Asians across the world.

There are many Tết-related customs which I had forgotten about, re-posted here:

- cleaning the house (supposedly you are not allowed to clean on the New Year, which makes many people feel obligated to clean frantically in the days leading up to the holiday; sweeping after the New Year is not allowed as it represents "sweeping the luck away" [no danger of inadvertent sweeping in this house!])

- decorating the house: Most people erect a cây nêu, or an artificial New Year's tree, a bamboo pole decorated with charms and origami paper products

- cooking and eating lots of delicious food (such as banh chung [sticky rice cakes], gio cha [Vietnamese sausage], and candied fruit)

- paying all of your debts

- going home and visiting lots of extended family (obviously not an option this COVID year) and celebrating your ancestors

- giving money to children and elderly people; children are supposed to give a "new year's greeting" (such as wishing health, longevity, security) before they can receive money (often lucky $2 bills) in red envelopes from their elders

- giving other gifts (especially "red" things and things related to the lucky numbers 6 or 8)

- strict policies on visitors: the Vietnamese believe that the first visitor a family receives in the year determines their fortune for the entire year; therefore, you should never enter the home of another family on New Year unless invited first (lest you be an "unlucky" person and set an unlucky tone!). It is an honor to be "the one invited" to a family's house. I heard that, to prevent a potentially "unlucky" person from being the "first enterer," the owner of the house sometimes slips out of the house shortly before midnight and returns just after midnight to be the "first" back in! (We won't be having any visitors for a while this year. But I walked the dog this morning and re-entered the house as our first "person" today!)

No-nos for Tết include:

- saying or doing bad things during the New Year

- sweeping as above

- giving unlucky gifts (watches/clocks, medicine, scissors/knives)

- eating duck or shrimp (unlucky, and representing poor prospects of success, respectively)

- wearing black or white (white being the color of funerals in Vietnam)

- refusing any wishes/gifts

Here are some cute pictures of the boys in traditional áo dài (pronounced ow-yigh).

We found a library book on the folklore behind the Tết bamboo pole.

What would photo session be without launching-off-the-couch photos (someone tell this kid it's not a Leap Year!)? :)

Red envelopes from the aunties

We are missing our Orange County family this year, and are hoping we can celebrate this, and all sorts of holidays by 2022!

Chúc mừng năm mới

(Happy Lunar New Year!)

Super-subdued Superbowl Sunday

Superbowl Sunday, COVID edition, was pretty quiet around these parts.

In the morning, the kids snuggled over the heater vent with their new helium balloons (from Papa) which have provided many hours of home entertainment this weekend. We FaceTimed with my parents and realized that it's been almost exactly one year since my kids have seen any of their relatives. This time last year, we were en route to Orange County to celebrate Niall's second birthday with Kelvin's family and to start our kid-free Patagonia trip.

We took a morning trip to the Ma-le'l Dunes, where the kids wore themselves out climbing and sledding down the sand hills and playing chase. Morning is the best time to visit the dunes, as it's less windy.

We had more cozy inside time with all of us robed! 

We geared up to watch Superbowl LV home alone just with us four (no Superbowl-spreader events in these parts!). We don't really have "a team" we followed this year (but will root for the 49ers if they're in it like they were last year, and I will always root for whatever team is opposing Tom Brady). We cobbled together some sports-themed attire, including a 49ers hoodie for me, an Odell Beckham jersey for Niall, a red sports tank for Iver, and a Kansas shirt for Kelvin. Being a pretty ardent Brady critic, it's been a rough couple of decades watching NFL seasons/playoffs for me, and this game, hyped up greatly due to the quarterback match-up (but which was won 31-9 in a very one-sided victory by Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers over Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs) was, disappointingly, one of the most abysmally uncompetitive and boring final sporting events I've watched in the last decade.  However, I now know far better than to hope for the outcome I desire. At least the pre-show tributes, musical numbers including the anthem, poem/appearance by Amanda Gorman, and commercials were decent. 

I made a personal buffalo chicken dip for one (me), and Superbowl Broccoli-Cheese Stromboli for the kids (with only one of two children finding it edible).

Despite the COVID circumstances, watching the Big Game festivities today and seeing Brady pull off another (his 7th) Superbowl win felt almost... normal.  When he comes back in 2022 at age forty-four to break my heart again, will COVID be behind us? 

Winter Parkway Stroll

Winter in Northern California can still lend itself to outdoor walks and hikes.  My friend Kellie told us that on the first Saturday of winter months, Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park (about 40 minutes north of us) is closed to car traffic, and you can walk, bike, or scoot down the tree-lined parkway with other pedestrians. Since the weather was expected to be good this weekend, we bundled up and headed up. 

On our way north, we passed a large herd of the resident Roosevelt Elk on the roadside.

We were one of the first cars parked, and I really appreciated the solace and early morning light. 

 Iver started with riding his bike and Niall rode the Flyer bike.

Masks are also good for keeping faces warm on a cold day!

Break for snack time

Iver then ditched his bike and wanted to do some walking.

Pretty moss-covered tree

Our coastal redwoods are truly majestic! 

We had some cold (kid) hands by the end of our walk, but ate and warmed up near our parked car late morning, when we saw more people/cars arriving. We had a socially distanced chat with some of our friends (Jenna, Sean & their family) who also made the trip up (and ran into another friend, Peggy), and were super happy to have taken advantage of this COVID-safe outdoors wintertime activity!

Will we ever travel again?

My mom and friend Karen send me the above pictures. Sigh.  Lonely Planet Travel guides are my go-to for any trips.

 Here's a "before" stack (from Kelvin).

 

It's so hard to know when we'll be able to safely travel again. I miss it so much. I can't remember the last time we've gone this long without going on vacation and visiting another state or country.  Travel (and being out of town, truly "off" work) really fills my cup. I haven't worked this many clinic days in a year in nearly a decade, and while we may have to "use" or "lose" our PTO if we don't take it, I feel guilty taking days off.... to go nowhere (and would prefer to bank it for some super, long, and much-needed post-COVID trips).

Kelvin found some Southwest airplane pretzels in a cabinet. "Remember these?" he asked. 

(Yes. And they tasted very stale).

I wonder if my kids will remember what it's like to be in an airport or on a plane. That first trip in the "after-times" is going to feel so weird, but so good.  We can only dream about that day...

The second half of parenting life...

 .... starts when your youngest child is about three (or is preschool age).

I love the What Fresh Hell podcast and they recently did an episode about this very topic. 

Niall "graduated" last week from the toddler room at his childcare and started in the "preschool room" (across the hall) today (and turns three in two weeks).  It definitely feels like a milestone, for sure (and there were no tears from me, only joy!). We love all of his heroic childcare teachers (some of whom have watched both of our kids grow up from infancy and who have truly become like family) but they’ll still be nearby at the same site, a short walk away. 

Parenting infants and young toddlers is exhausting!  From the outset, I knew that I would enjoy and feel more comfortable parenting three-year-old (and up) children. Three-year-olds (generally) sleep though the night (at least mine have). Communication is way easier (and Niall is quite a talker). When your child is (reliably) potty trained, it makes outings much less complicated and cumbersome (not that we go anywhere much during a pandemic, but still...).  Some parents call these future years "the gravy years," when kids are still young, innocent, and love to snuggle, and haven't yet reached the teenage years of attitude and angst (except our strong-willed six-year-old does have a lot of attitude, and some people call three-year-olds "threenagers").  Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to them!

Coloring well in between the lines! 

Growing up and out of the Lillebaby carrier!

So big! (sign by big brother Iver, bribe to smile by Papa). 

He popped in there like "no big deal," as his is "No-Fuss Niall" way. 

This is a classic "Pandemic Preschool" shot-- haunting to me in many ways but "normal" for him.

Onwards... to the rest of our lives.