What a party!

We had a great time at our agency's Chinese New Year party yesterday. The party seemed to be "smaller" than two years ago when we were there. I say "smaller" because there were "only" 1300 or so people there! I think 11 or 12 of the 20 kids from our travel group were there, so it was so nice to catch up with everyone! Here's a pic with the older siblings:

There was a lot of great entertainment - musical presentations, dancing, etc. There was a Chinese buffet for lunch, followed by an ice cream sundae bar for dessert. Sophie loved the ice cream! Some representatives from the Chinese Consulate in New York were special guests at the party, and they brought gifts for everyone. We got a little Chinese drum and a book about Chinese geography. A tradional lion dance closed out the show:

There were plenty of vendors selling things. Most were donating at least a portion of the proceeds to CAWLI's Rainbow Fund, our agency's charitable fund. We bought a DVD about Chinese New Year, and EJ selected an embroidered lavender silk purse.

While all of the proceeds from the party always go to the Rainbow Fund, this year it was especially important, as the agency's director, Lillian, announced that all of the money raised would go to the relief effort from China's devastating snowstorms. Many of the orphanages are without power and water, and help is desperately needed. We just found out this week that CAWLI has the ability to route donations to specific orphanages or provinces, so we plan to make a donation to Sophie's.

A raffle and silent auction offered some really great gifts. We bought a lot of raffle tickets (EJ had her eye on a number of things!), and we were surprised to find out that we won TWO prizes. EJ won a Little Mommy doll and carrier - she talks, holds a teddy bear or bottle, etc. And we won another terrific gift - a full set (7) of Mei Mei Hu's Learn to Speak Chinese DVDs, as well as an audio CD and a set of Chinese character-writing notebooks. They were worth nearly $200! We'll have to check them out later today.

I was joking that I should have put the blog name on my name tag (I didn't!), but I had so many people approach to tell me that they read the blog regularly. (I think many recognized us from the red silks we wore in the holiday photos). It was nice to finally meet some of them. I even got to meet some other CAWLI bloggers whose sites I visit regularly. And, I also volunteer as a travel trainer for parents who are preparing for their trip, so it was nice to see that some of those folks are now home with their newest family members!

After the party, we decided we hadn't had enough craziness for the day, so we drove to the Wrentham outlets and did a very quick shopping tour (I love the Williams-Sonoma outlet there). Sophie was getting a little fussy, as she either wanted out of the stroller to play in the snow or she was getting a little hungry. She was much happier after dinner at the Cracker Barrel...and she slept through all the heavy snow showers on the long drive home.