Chinese New Year - Kung Hei Fat Choy!

Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year (according to the Lunar calendar) and it is the year of the ox.  If you know anything about Chinese New year custom, it's deeply rooted in superstition. So in honor of my Chinese heritage but without giving a nod to the pagan roots, we celebrate the holiday by stuffing ourselves with good, authentic Chinese food (well, as authentic as you can get here in Texas).  

Even though the weather outside was miserably cold and rainy, we packed all the kids up in the van and headed to our favorite local 369 Chinese BBQ in Plano.  We stuffed ourselves to overflowing with fish, chicken, pork, noodles, rice, and Chinese veges.  What I love about this place besides the food is that the owners and servers there know our names, what we like to eat, and they converse with our kids.  They got Christopher to say, "Kung Hei Fat Choy!", which is something like, "double happiness fortunes in the new year!"  And Hannah would yell, "Happy Yoo Yeeaah!" everytime one of the servers came near our table.  

As we were packing up our leftovers, Christopher and Sarah wandered off toward the front of the restaurant where the BBQ ducks are hanging in the window and also where two men were waiting for their take-out orders.  I couldn't quite see Sarah, so I asked Christopher where she was.  He pointed and said, "She's over here...inviting these two cheerful robbers into the Chinese restaurant."  Thankfully, the men cracked up laughing and so did we!  I assured him that they were paying customers and not robbers, but he remained unconvinced.  I asked him in the van why he thought they were 'cheerful robbers' and he said, "Because they both had beards and mustaches."  Hmmmm.  Don't know where he got that idea, but it made for a good laugh!