The year of the snake

 

It's the year of the snake. 

We spent the weekend participating in a few celebrations of Chinese New Year. Each year we go to the Nelson-Atkins Museum for their event, which includes dragon dancers, food, crafts, demonstrations, and of course, art. The munchkin loves trying on the kids costumes and posing for a photo in the rickshaw, seeing his favorite work of art (the "big Buddha"), and doing the crafts. This year he made a scroll of a snake- thankfully it is an easy zodiac this year for a toddler to reproduce. The dragon dancers are a bit scary- the music is loud, and the costumes a bit too real for him- so we tried to work up to the event in the last few weeks by reading Karen Katz' My First Chinese New Year, an adorable story about a traditional celebration that includes a dragon dance. It seemed to work; there were no tears this year and despite a hesitancy to sit in the front row, he was mesmerized for the entire 20 minute performance. After the museum we hit up Kim Lin for a quick dinner. Tonight we shared a feast of Bo Ling's with family- a perfect new years treat. 

Gung hei fat choi!