Chinese New Year Festival

I love Chinese New Year. For those that don't know, I am half Chinese. I follow the traditions and try my hardest to follow the 25 days. My mom finds it important and I want to be able to learn and remember the culture... I want to be able to teach Birdie. Every year, I go to the little festival here in town and then I fly out to visit my family and see the huge festival and parade in San Francisco. I don't think I ever missed a year.

This year, Birdie is totally into everything. She loves the firecrackers and the lions. She wants to touch the dragons and was impressed by the snakes. I'm so glad that she got to experience everything.

We got into town early afternoon and had the hardest time trying to find parking. It's always crazy but paired up with the construction and it was just horrible. First thing we did after we parked? Ate. We are food people. We looked around for a good dim sum place and sat there for a while.

Unfortunately my brother couldn't make it those year and my dad was running late so we decided to do some shopping. We all got Forever 21 gift cards for Christmas and there are two 3 story stores in the city. I know... not related to the new year but it was fun. At this time, Birdie had fallen asleep and we made a makeshift sling out of my scarf. It was a lifesaver.

My dad met us while we were walking out of Forever 21. The parade had started and we were looking for a good place to stand. While trying to get through a huge crowd, people were leaving and offered us seats. We got to sit up close and personal. My sister and Birdie got to sit up close and Birdie loved every minute of it. She was pointing and clapping.. saying "wow" every couple of minutes. It was an awesome experience.

On our way out, we stopped by a bakery and got a lot of pastries. So good. Took forever because some was made from scratch. This bakery is considered to be the oldest in the area! Thought that was pretty cool.

In all, it was a great day. Birdie had a blast!