Chinese New Year!!

okay, last year, we went to P.F.Chang's for New Year's Day dinner...mostly because we had a generous gift certificate from family to go there. so - we said that day "We should make this a tradition!"

well...this year, a kid or two mentioned it, but in light of the fact that we need a car more than a trip across the city to a very nice restaurant with excellent service and giant stautes of horses from China, we stayed home.

and MADE chinese.

and boyyyyyyyyyy...was it yummy. Spring rolls with chicken and veggies and very spicy mustardm and stir fry atop cello mung bean sticks and nutty brown rice from my rice cooker that I ADORE. I am never eating a non-home-made spring roll again! I will post the recipe here soon. Luke was a little sad when it was time for bed, as a) vacation is officially over, and b) we did not do our "tradition". Ben was thinking "how weird - we do something once, and everyone thinks it is written in the Bible somewhere...'Thou shalt eat chinese on New Year's Day'." he DID think that, anyway, until on December 23rd, we were all out shopping, needing to eat something, and he pulls into McDonald's. I would rather go VERY hungry than eat there, but he parked there. I thought "Surely, we are walking next door to Del Taco" (which is a different sort of yukky fast food), but NOOOO. He looked at me and said "it is tradition".

When HE was growing up, his perfectly-sized family of 5 decided somewhere along the way that to make a big Christmas meal was too much work, and left the mom doing all the dishes while the children fussed about the eternal wait to open packages. so, DAD declared "We are going to McDonald's." Thus it became tradition - "Thou shalt eat at McDonald's on Christmas EVE, thereby allowing the mother to take it easy, and the kids to open presents early, as even McD's closes at about 5pm that day"

UGH. when we were done, he said "hm. it is not as great as I remember". I told him "No food is. It is the company you are in". I am not sure we will go back there next year, but it would not surprise me if he forgets. SO...we may find ourselves trying to get to a P.F.Chang's later this week...my poor little boy was so crushed that we did not follow through on the law of tradition. Kids need that. So do parents.