Getting ready to celebrate Year of the Horse!

I have to thank my blogging friend Kareena from "Let's go Fly a Kite".  She sent us a Chinese New Year package filled with red envelopes, as well as festive "Year of the Horse" decorations.   

While we were home from school earlier this week, we assembled the red envelopes and chocolate gold coins that Josie will give to each of her classmates.

You can find more information on the red envelope tradition at this link.

 Josie's classmates will also be decorating red lanterns for a mini lantern festival.   In case you're wondering, red is a key color for New Year's celebrations.  It symbolizes a bright and happy future.

Josie and I pre-assembled the construction paper lanterns so that her classmates can spend their time decorating horses.

We made a few extra lanterns to keep at home.

If we were in China, we would also hear lots of firecrackers being set off to send out the old year and welcome in the new year.

We made our own firecrackers using a cardboard tube from a roll of wrapping paper.

The tubes were cut into sections and painted red.  Even big sister got in on the crafting fun.

Lines of glue and glitter was generously sprinkled to decorate our firecrackers.

Red string was taped on the inside and they are now hanging in our sunroom window.

Chinese New Year lasts for several days, so we'll be sharing a few more pictures.

Wishing you a Happy New Year!
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