I Suck At Celebrating Chinese New Year

last night was the annual chinese new year celebration dinner that my parents always have. for those of you who are curious, i believe this year in the chinese calendar is the year of rat. chinese new year was also febrary 7th, but yesterday was the only time that was good for everyone. (pictured below is mr. leary)


i suck at celebrating chinese new year at my parents, not because i deny my chinese heritage (although i have historically in the past during my childhood done so), but because i get a little nervous or possibly stressed when my parents have company over. don't get me wrong, i love my parents. i wouldn't trade them in for anyone else in the world. i think the cause of my anxiety is the chance of possible embarrassment, like the time they busted out my baby pictures for everyone to see.

all right, maybe my constantly worrying is a figment of my imagination. after all, this year (and most years past for that matter) have gone pretty smoothly. this year, the usual attendees were at the chinese new year dinner: my mom, my dad, my cousin betty, karen, karen's mom and dad, karen's grandmother, pj, janine, little pj, kaleigh, and bill. marvin, who is my cousin's son, could not attend as he was having a friend over. jen, as well, could not attend because she was in aruba with hot amy.

i think everyone had a good time. the food was fantastic, and that is usually hard for me to say because i'm not a big fan of chinese food. of course, it helps that my parents made my favorite dishes.