Happy Little Christmas

photo from Bing

Today, in the Christian world, we celebrate Epiphany.  Also called Three Kings Day, Theophany or, as in our home, Little Christmas.  It is the day that our Lord was revealed as the Christ.  Our Lord and Savior.  God made man.

It is our final day of Christmas.  We will celebrate with one final family dinner being hosted by Frank's sister, Roz, and her husband, Ron.  The Christmas lights will shine for their final night.

Tomorrow, life returns to normal.  The decorations will start coming down.  The Christmas décor removed, the winter décor put in it's place.  It is going to be a short "normalcy" this year.  Our Lenten season begins February 14th with Ash Wednesday.  Yes, our season of atonement begins, this year, on St. Valentine's Day.  

Photo provided by Bing

Thus will start our 40 day journey to prepare ourselves for the resurrection of our Christ.   Easter, more than Christmas, is the holiday that is the most important to me in my faith life.  It is by His death and resurrection that I see Jesus as the Christ.  Had He not risen from the dead, Jesus would have just been another great man.  It is this resurrection that proved Him our Lord and our God.

Photo from Bing

Easter this year falls on April 1st.  Yep, Easter is on April Fool's Day this year.  I'm sure some of my agnostic and atheist friends will have a riot with that one.  It's okay....our God has big shoulders.

photo provided by Bing

Lent will not be completely solemn though.  The 40 days of Lent do not include Sundays.  Sundays are set aside to revel in our Lord's goodness.  So our Chinese New Year celebration will take place on Sunday, February 18th.  

This is the year of the dog.  It officially begins on Friday, February 16th. The characteristic word this year is Action...that is a very good word.  I have decided that it will be my word and goal for this year.  My birth year is in the year of the dog....the prediction is that this will be a very good year for me but also an exhausting one.  THAT will be a switch LOL.

Each year, since Tingting became our daughter, we have celebrated Chinese New Year.  We first would go to a restaurant that had a celebration each year, including dragon dancers, fortune tellers and fireworks along with traditional foods.  They stopped doing this several years ago so I continued the tradition by preparing dinner and having a party here at home.

The final day of the Chinese New Year is celebrated by releasing lanterns that had been used as decorations for the homes in which the celebration was held.  These lanterns were provided by our friends, Linda and Greg, the first year we celebrated at home.

Last year we celebrated the Year of the Rooster, with a family dinner.  The previous year we also celebrated Nicole's birthday and Valentine's Day along with Chinese New Year.  In 2015, Chinese New Year fell on Ash Wednesday so we moved our celebration to the following Saturday.  The first year, that I had this bash, we celebrated on Super Bowl Sunday.  I gave the most in depth account of the festivities and posted a lot of photos in this post.

I am looking forward to this year's celebration.  I will spend the next few weeks planning my menu and finding the decorations to make this a special day for our Chinese daughter and granddaughter. 

Happy Little Christmas everyone!!!