Lunar New Year!

This past Thursday was Soellal, the celebration of the Lunar New Year.  That afternoon, I took the little boys up to Houston to pick up some delicious Korean food to have that night for dinner.  Japchae (one of C's favorites) and of course, deeokguk.  Everyone at the restaurant was so friendly while we waited for our food.  The women just fawned over lil' peanut.  And he really soaked it up.  He said something on the way to the bathroom about one of the ladies looking like Umma Jae.  I told him that was probably because they were Korean, just like Umma Jae and like him.  We talked about some of the characteristics they all shared brown skin, brown eyes, etc. and when we walked back up to the front of the restaurant he had the biggest smile on his face.  He looked around, looked back at me, looked around again and exclaimed "Mom!  They are Korean just like me!  You were right, you did a good job, now you get a peppermint."  

In Korea, everyone ages with the New Year.  It's a tradition that you're not another year older until you've eaten your deeokguk on New Year's Day.  C quite enjoyed pretending he was a nine year old. ;)  After dinner we watched a little video about Seollal and then I showed the boys how to do sebae, a traditional bow children do for their elders as a sign of respect.  Lil' peanut jumped at his chance to perform sebae.  C declared he wasn't doing it...then he watched us hand lil' peanut an envelope (a gift of money along with words of wisdom and well wishes for the New Year is given after sebae).  He changed his tune pretty quickly after that. ;)  2015 is the year of the sheep!  I had some coloring pages ready for the boys to do and we finished off the celebration by going out for cupcakes.

On Saturday we went to a Lunar New Year Festival in Houston.  The boys favorite thing was the bounce house area, of course!  The weather ended up being perfect.  The rain held off and it was overcast and the perfect temperature for enjoying the event.

Watching Arirang, a traditional Korean dance.  The women looked so beautiful in their hanboks.

Swords.  Don't have a thing to do with Lunar New Year but, boys need swords.  Daddy said those same swords cost $3 back when he was a kid too.  But, he said the ones back then were made much sturdier.  I think only 1 of the 3 we brought home is still in fighting shape.

The Lion Dance, a Chinese tradition.

A special gift!

We got a package in the mail a few day's ago from lil' peanut's foster mom.  He was so excited (especially about the candies)  I am so thankful that she continues to stay in touch with us.  What a gift for our little man to have that connection to his early life in Korea as he grows.  She sent the sweetest note and I had to laugh at the part where she said that "Keonwoo still seems naughty and I love it!"  She still knows him pretty well. :)  She is fostering an 18 month old boy right now and said that he is super naughty too.  There was even a gift for me, a neat hair pin.  I was so impressed with myself that I was able to get my hair into a twist with it on my first try (considering my hair lives in a ponytail these days).  We need to get our computer into a shop.  Without it up and running my posting is limited.  Here are a few pictures I took on my phone of getting our special gifts in the mail.