Chuc Mung Nam Moi

Happy Tet, Chinese New Year and Valentines Day!
Our friend, Pastor Le, invited us to join his local Vietnamese church for their Lunar New Year luncheon on Sunday. They had a full buffet of delicious Vietnamese food. Along with all the "normal" VN foods there were several traditional Tet items served only for the New Year. I have read about these, but not seen/tasted them in person. We tried all the dishes and could tell our taste buds are Americanized because the fried rice and egg rolls were still the best. There were probably about 150+ people who attended and seven families were able to make the luncheon. All of us have children born in Vietnam, but not necessarily the same province. Several of the families also have Korean, Chinese, domestic and homegrown kiddos as well. As you can see, it was a packed house and every person we met was warm and welcoming to our family.
A Tet tree was set up in the front of the chapel. They asked each person to go up to the tree and pull off a folded piece of paper that contained a scripture. This scripture was your blessing for the year. Avi Joy's was beautiful- Phil 1:6 and Nehemiah's is really to funny-sad to share. I know funny-sad it not a great description, but I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I read it. I let your mind think about it.
Emma and her mom Kim were able to make the luncheon!
It is always a blessing to fellowship with the Lively family.
Michael and little man, Samuel.
Pastor Le handing out red envelopes to the children. This is also a very special New Year's tradition. And guess what was inside....
A TWO DOLLAR BILL! How fun is that!
Then the teens of the group performed a dance. Very western in style, yet sung in Vietnamese.
Then two guys at the church did skits, dressed-up and sang SILLY songs. We did not know what they were saying, but we could tell they were having big fun cutting-up for the crowd.
Kennedy and her family enjoyed all the festivities.
Sarah and Avi Joy.
A group picture of the children. (Not pictured, Emma, Lucy and Eli)
The next day our friend Truman invited us over to his house for a Valentines day party. His mom did an awesome job organizing the party. (This is saying something be/c I am really uptight about organizing things. I know, I know, many of you inserted, "uh, ya, you think?")
The front room had a full craft table set up. The kids cut, glued, drew and used stickers to decorate valentines.
Kenley hard at work!
Then the back room was set up for decorating cookies. There were bowls of icing and many types of sprinkles. All the kids (and moms) loved the yummy cookies.
I had so many favorite pictures of the kids this day, but Abby takes the cookie! I took about 10 pic's of her enjoying her cookie and all of them were precious! The natural light from all their windows was amazing.
"May Your love and Your truth always protect me." Psalm 40:11

The Perryman's