Happy Chinese New Year! Happy Year of the Rabbit!



Photo by Choo Yut Shing via Flicker

 I've always loved Chinese New Year, even if I am just an on-the-surface observer. I like the extra-good food that comes out at Dim Sum, the dragon parades in the streets, and the happiness mixed with mayhem in the air. I also really like the shiny red envelopes and other decorations, though again, I am the first to admit I don't know much about the meaning and traditions behind them.

One of the great things about having kids is celebrating holidays with them. Because the same energy that makes kids the least good of companions on house-bound snow days makes them the best folks in the world to enjoy any and all holidays.

So when Chinese (or Lunar) New Year comes tomorrow, my kids and me are all about celebrating, even if I don't really know the first thing about how it is properly celebrated. (We had our New Year back in September.)

This is how these Jersey Jews are celebrating the Year of the Rabbit:

Making Pomelo Sea Breezes and Spicy Beef Lettuce Wraps using recipes from one of my favorite sites, If You Can Make That, You Can Make This 

Reading Cat and Rat: The Legend of the Chinese Zodiac by Ed Young

Going to one of the great events in Chinatown that run through the weekend.

Giving the kids these fabulous red envelopes with a little money inside to ensure this will be a prosperous year for them:

And last, my big brother LESster has picked this auspicious date to vacate his bachelor digs, leaving after a decade of living just steps from the heart of Chinatown. Good luck in the new year in your new place. Manhattan's loss is Brooklyn's gain.

Family one last time in the old neighborhood.

Happy 4708 everyone, however you celebrate!

Fun Handprint Art Projects for February: Chinese New Year, Super Bowl Sunday and Endless Winter

With so many folks getting directed here from Search looking for Handprint Art Projects to do with kids, I've decided to start doing a round-up each month. Here's what I have for a fabulous February of handprints:

Chinese New Year starts this Thursday, February 3, ushering in the Year of the Rabbit.

Activity Village has a really fun dragon that is made from cut-out or painted handprints. This is a great project for a lot of kids, as you can just keep adding handprints to the dragon's body.

Picture from ActivityVilliage.co.uk

If you're looking for more crafts for Chinese New Year, including ones featuring rabbits, they have plenty to choose from here.

This Sunday, Feb. 6, brings The Superbowl which I hear from sportsball fans is a big game, maybe even The Big Game.

Play With Me has a great handprint football project. My husband reports that the teams playing are the Pittsburgh Steelers (Black and Gold) and the Green Bay Packers (Green and Yellow) if you want to tie those colors in, too.

Picture from Playtimewithmommy.blogspot.com

And last, a round-up of February wouldn't be complete without a mention of The Snow that has been particularly widespread this year. Where I live on the East Coast we haven't seen our lawn since December.  And with the snow coming down now, I don't think we'll be seeing it anytime soon.

Playtime with Mommy has some adorable Handprint Mittens, perfect for celebrating any wintry February day. She has a lot of other fun crafts too for making the most of these snowy days.

Picture from Playtimewithmommy.blogspot.com

What holidays did I forget? Tell me what other days you celebrate, and more importantly, do you celebrate with handprint crafts?

Happy February!

PS If you're looking for Handprint crafts for Valentines Day, they got their own post.

Today I've been Married for Eight Years

That's right, as of around 7:00 pm tonight I've been married for eight years, all of them to the same great guy. We met two years to the day before our wedding, so that makes this anniversary a nice, even decade of togetherness.

Here's a quick run-down of our time together by the numbers.  Since meeting we've:

- Lived in 4 states
- Resided in 6 apartments and 2 houses
- Held down 9 jobs, including 3 at now-defunct companies
- Driven 4 different cars
- Brought 3 kids into the world
- Argued 1,839,029 times (of which I was right 1,839,021 times)

- Things I would change: 0

Here we are, in 2003, we've been married for one day.

And here, all these years later:

Menorahs, Momtrends, and My Mother-in-Law

I want to give a big thank you to Nicole at Momtrends for including my choices in her Top Hanukkah Picks for Kids.

And next, I'd like to answer the question I know all of you are thinking: when did you start having an opinion on children's menorahs? And the truth is, I don't really have strong feelings about what menorahs children use at Hanukkah time, as long as the menorah being lighted (or faux-lighted) is not the Pottery Barn Kids Menorah. Because that menorah is the ugliest thing on the face of the earth. And Momtrends had included it on its list of great Modern Menorahs.

So of course I felt compelled to tell Momtrends how ugly the PBK menorah is, and which menorahs I thought were cute and fun alternatives. And yet, despite so many options when it comes to kiddie menorahs, I myself continue to dutifully trot out the same ugly menorah year after year because... it was a present from my mother-in-law.

What do you think? Is it in fact the ugliest menorah in the world? And, as it was a gift from my mother-in-law, should I feel guilty when it gets accidentally lost this year?

If you think this menorah should grace your home instead of the landfill, let me know and I will gladly pass it along.

And if you know of an uglier menorah, I'd love to see that, too.

Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Halloween!

I'm officially a blogger now! And a New Jersey Mom!

That's right, I was quoted in the New York Post today as "Anna Sandler, a New Jersey mom and blogger..."

You can read all about the atrocities passing as halloween costumes for girls these days at Would you let your child trick or treat in this?

And, for anyone who is wondering, here's the questionable scarecrow costume.

Ghosts (and ladybugs and frogs) of Halloweens Past

This first pic is from Halloween 2007, when we lived in New York City. Magpie is almost three, and Kay is just a month over one year. We're on our way to the Hippo Park Halloween Parade, a great event and I highly recommend it if you are on the Upper West Side. This year, it's at 3:45 on Sunday, October 31. Meet at the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument at 89th Street and Riverside Drive, and follow the bagpipers!

Below is another pic from Halloween '07, about as inspired as I ever get, it seems I've tried to come up with an entire family theme based on the Blue's Clues costume we already had for Magpie. Kay is dressed-up as Magenta, and Dad is Steve. I vaguely recall putting some paw prints on my tee shirt and jeans and claiming I was the "clues. "

The next year, the girls picked-out there own costumes. Being in Kindergarten now, Magpie insisted it had to be scary. She went for the always-appropriate blood ninja. And her sister, the equally appropriate slutty scarecrow.


Last year's trip to the costume shop netted one Purple Witch and one Super Girl. These get-ups got worn again to a party yesterday (yay!), but I'll leave you in suspense to find out what the girls are wearing for their "real" Halloween costumes for the main event on Sunday.

It really is hard to believe how fast they grow-up.

Happy Halloween.

My lil pumpkin Kay now and then

Kay two years ago pumpkin picking with Travelin' Tots, and Kay today getting a pumpkin with her Kindergarten class.

My lil pumpkin Ziggy now and then

Ziggy last year:And Ziggy this year:

Halloween

Halloween used to be one of my favorite holidays, but lately I'm not so sure if I love it or hate it. It used to be the most laid-back and easy-going of holidays, and with extra bonus candy! What's not to like? Lately though, I feel like this it's been totally Christmas-ized and super-sized, and I'm not buying it - and by it I mean the decorations, the costumes and the special over-priced Just for Halloween candy.

You can read me complaining some more in New Halloween: You're Giving Me a Headache on the Jersey Moms Blog.

How 'bout you - do you love Halloween? Should I find something else to complain about?

Happy Lag B'omer! Happy Birthday Jewish Mysticism!

For those of you who are not familiar with this (very fun) Jewish holiday, it was yesterday. Lag B'omer commemorates the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer, and is also known as the birthday of Jewish mysticism.

To celebrate, we went to a really great party hosted by the local Chabad chapter here in Larchmont. We jumped in the bouncy castle, ate yummy barbecue, sang songs, shot bows n' arrows (a Lag B'omer tradition, who knew?) and flew kites.

The best part, besides seeing lots of friends and hearing updates about many of our beloved morahs at the Chabad Early Learning Center, was watching Magpie stick to the giant velcro wall:
For those who are interested in learning more about the holiday, here is info from the Chabad.org website:

Lag B'omer is the thirty-third day of the Omer, a minor festival falling between Passover and Shavuot, commemorating the end of a plague which killed thousands of Rabbi Akiva’s students; also the yahrzeit of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, author of the Zohar.

If you don't know what the The Omer Count is, click here and all will be revealed.