Chinese Lantern Festival

It's funny that we took our big trip to China in 2012, but 2014 has been a very "Chinese" year so far. 

First, we went to dinner in Dallas's Chinatown -- which is to say, a northern suburb.  There are tons of Chinese restaurants there, and our Taiwanese neighbor took us to dinner at one she selected.  It was delicious! 

Second, we went to a Chinese New Year celebration at a Chinese Catholic church with our same Taiwanese neighbor and two other neighbors, and together, we all performed a Chinese New Year's song.  So totally outside my comfort zone, but so much fun. 

This little boy (age 3!) recited a poem in Chinese: 

One of the deacons at the church set aside some nian gou (rice cake) just for me since I really wanted to try it, and we got red envelopes! 

Third, we went to dinner with a good friend and former co-worker who is originally from Beijing and now works in Shanghai.  We'd spent a lot of time with him and his wife and son in 2012 when we were visiting Shanghai.  They were a big part of why we loved Shanghai so much.  He was back in the US for a partners' meeting and spent a few days in Dallas to see some clients (and us!).  We went out for dinner and had so much fun laughing about some of our little jokes from Shanghai.

And fourth, finally, most recently, we went to see a special exhibit of Chinese lanterns here.  We missed the exhibit last year, but they extended the dates this year so we made a point of going.  I had planned on going on Valentine's Day, but we were too tired, so instead we went Saturday night.  Some photos: 

The dragon boat, perhaps the coolest part of the exhibit I thought: 

This resembles a stupa in southwest China:

Up close, it's all made of plates, cups, saucers, and spoons.  Amazing! 

Goldfish, which I know from Grace's blog, are called yu, which is an auspicious word in Chinese! 

Love the pandas and the bamboo: 

The seven daughters of the emperor: 

And of course, since we're in Texas: 

A cool view of the moon as we were leaving: 

Kind of fun, glad we got to see the exhibit.  Not sure what we will do next to keep our Chinese theme going this year, but we will have to come up with something.  I'm actually considering starting formal language classes.  It's so intriguing, so different from French and Italian (and English).