Preparing for the Party of the Two Grandmothers

... interesting Chinese ornaments in every corner ...

This is a party Wyona has been decorating for, for a few days.

Wyona and Moiya found a new tree to put ornaments on – an all-season tree at Canadian tire.

It may be three feet high, white and has small electric lights on the ends of its branches that change colours.

Wyona went right from putting the Christmas decorations away, to bringing out the large box of decorations for Chinese New Year.

And she and I were going to China to get more, but that was before she pulled out the decorations she owns.

Now she was giving away what she couldn’t use from her supply, and after I have taken more than I can use, she has a supply for a third home.

“Looking at what I have has cancelled my trip to Chinatown to get more,” she told me.

I can find 10 different Chinese decorations
in the photo of this one part of the front room.

Wyona did live in the Pacific Rim for five years and she told me many years ago, “China gets in your blood”.

I can remember the exact words for I haven’t heard anyone say that before.

I was at Richard and Miranda’s early yesterday morning.

Miranda had an appointment and I was watching the kids from 7:30 am to 9:30 am, as I did last week.

I thought the kids would sleep through the early hours of the morning since that family has been letting them stay up for movie-night many evenings. Alice and Michael do stay asleep.

Betty rises early.

When she came up the stairs, she was already dressed in red knowing that it was Chines New Year Party Day.

At supper the night before, we had gone around the table, figuring out who was who in the family, according to the Chinese Zodiac.

Michael is the Hare.

Michael has tried to trick Wyona by
putting a blue hoodie over his red shirt,
so she will think he forgot to wear red.

He likes to say he is the bunny.

Alice is the Snake, “a water-snake” she says, I think softening the idea of being a snake.

Betty is happy to be a sheep – she is only four – sheep occur in positive ways in many places in the literature that she encounters.

(Baa, baa black sheep, Little Boy Blue, Mary had a little lamb (all 6 verses, Little Bo Peep). Miranda is the Rat – this is her year. Richard is a Monkey and I am a Dragon.

We went around the table at supper, thinking about the Chinese Zodiac, identifying everyone who didn’t know what they were, as well as learning the original story about Buddha and The !2 Animals in the Chinese Zodiac.

Arta