Hooray for the Year of the Pig!
I've been waiting for this invitation for 17 years!
Annie Nelson invited us over for Chinese New Year.
It was amazing.
She explained all the details of the holiday to the Toads, including decorating the doors with lucky messages for the new year...
Next she taught the kids how to say lucky phrases to say to us parents.
Each kid was handsomely rewarded with a red envelope full of cash for the best effort at speaking a Chinese lucky phrase... let's say we were motivated!
Annie made her family's traditional meatballs for us to try.
They stew all day in a cabbage broth and they are DIVINE.
She also made quite the spread of delectable treats!
After dinner she taught us another tradition!
New Year's games with GAMBLING!
Annie explained that when she was a child this was how her father won all of his money back!
But she took it easy on us and we gambled with candy instead!
We were all in!
Oh- and did I mention the dessert?
These pillowy coconut nut cakes were just how I wanted to start my year of the pig!
