Happy Chinese New Year/Tet!

First and most importantly- I have a "renewed" prayer request for Lavender at Sweet and Sour Chicken who is having her first surgery today for her cleft repair. Please take a moment to pray for this little girl's safe and successful surgery, quick recovery time, pain relief, peace of mind and freedom from fear for Sabrina (her mom), and that her doctors will be blessed with wisdom and steady hands. The last time I requested your prayers for her, the surgery was put off due to illness. Let's ask the Lord to allow the doctors to get started, with no complications, and make a lot of progress today. I appreciate your prayers!

Do you say, "Happy Tet," "Merry Tet," or what?

I don't know, but whatever it is, it's TODAY!

So...

HAPPY, MERRY TET
and
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR TO ALL!!
The lanterns are hung over the chopsticks with care,
In hopes that Mom's chicken soon will be there...

We're celebrating with a dinner of Chelle's World Famous Super-Delectable Sesame Chicken, which I will be slaving over all day. It's a pain to cut up enough bite-sized chicken pieces to feed eight hogs, but it's worth it... Sooo good! Incidentally, "Life Change 08: Operation Chelle Reduction" is on hold until dinner is over (if I have to kill myself cooking it, I get to eat it. Them's the rules, folks, and they are unflinchingly rigid). Michael can sometimes be convinced to do the chicken cutting for good 0l' mom, so maybe I'll luck out and get out of it. Just depends on whether he likes me today or not. If I had to put money on it, I'd say I'll be cutting the chicken.

We're also going to celebrate by taking a day off school and having a house-cleaning party, instead. Since cleaning is an important part of this holiday, I want to be a good mom and help my kids experience it in a culturally significant way (do you think they'll buy it?).

Want to say "Happy New Year" in Chinese? You have a lot of choices...
Xin Nian Kuai Le (Mandarin- pronounced: Shin Knee-Ann Kw-eye= Happy New Year)
Gong Xi Fa Cai (Mandarin-Gong Shee Fah Ts'eye= A pronouncement of blessing... "I wish you to be prosperous," or "Congratulations on being rich")
Gung Hay Fat Choy (Cantonese- Gung Hay Fat Choi= similar blessing of prosperity)
Hey- these remind me a little of the preferred expression of my favorite Trekkie (you know who you are): Live long and prosper! Did you know that phrase did not originate with Spock? It is actually adapted from a Jewish blessing, and Leonard Nimoy is (was???) a Jewish man. Supposedly, he worked it into the script and they kept it. Interesting little bit of Trekkie trivia there, entirely free of charge from your old Aunt Michelle, to share at the next convention. Just one more valuable service I offer.
Gong Xi Gong Xi (Gong Shee Gong Shee= Means "Congratulations," ...I think)
In Vietnamese, the greeting is "Chuc Mung Nam Moi," but don't ask me how to pronounce it...

Keep in mind- if I don't know something, I sometimes just make it up. So there are no actual guarantees that any of the above information is accurate, except for the stuff about the chicken.

P.S. This is the "Year of the Rat" (or mouse), by the way. Just in case that fact was not made obvious by Cartoon Chelle's choice of headgear in the picture at the top, and the rat sitting at her feet... If you were born in 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, or 2008, you are a Rat Baby and this is your year! That means that some of you waiting PAPs may have Rat Babies on the way this year!
Of course, I am a ...

HORSE!

How funny is that? As if my self-esteem needed to take another hit... Geez.