Valentines Day and Chinese New Year...A Holiday Package Deal!

This year Valentines Day and Chinese New Year coincided so we decided to double dip. The morning began with a Chinese-entine tea party. Our original plan was to go Denver's famed Brown Palace for high tea, but at $40/person we opted for our own version.

Maybe not Denver's finest...but it worked for us!

The girls wore their red dresses for the occasion. It couldn't have been better. Red for Chinese New Year--Red for Valentines Day. I have decided I really like this combination.After tea it was time for the Valentine-ese Traditional Dragon Dance. Who doesn't celebrate Happy Hearts this way?
I know our little dragons had a very special day. Happy Hearts and Happy Tigers all around!

Later in the week, we met the "fam" at PF Chang's for our 2nd annual CNY celebration.
We had lots of laughs together and this has become a new family tradition for us as we honor our little Asian Princess.

All of the cousins really get into it. Hailey and Hanna brought the traditional Lai See. The red color of the envelopes symbolizes good luck and is supposed to ward off evil spirits. It is typically filled with money however in these tough economic times, we had to resort to chocolate gold coins. :-)

After dinner, the kids were treated to a tour of the kitchen. They were fascinated. The chef they watched is a professional "futbol" player from Peru who has worked for PF Chang's in the off season for the past 11 years. He was great with the kids, showed them how he makes Crispy Honey Chicken, and let them take home their creation. The management (PF Chang's Park Meadow's by the way) was fabulous with our "decesion" on their normally calm Tuesday night dinner crowd. I think they were actually quite impressed with our little celebration...not that I'm tooting my own horn or anything. Hmmm????...Maybe next year we'll bring the dragon and do our little dance.