Xīnnián hǎo!

Xīnnián hǎo - Happy New Year! Chinese New Year is in full swing here in Beijing. On New Year's  Eve, there were literally fireworks exploding all night long. Everyone buys tons of fireworks and everyone stays up all night lighting them. And they're not our wimpy Utah fireworks, these are big and loud. So imagine a city's display of fireworks on the fourth of July but going off up and down every street. From our apartment window on the 11th floor, we had a great view because all of the fireworks were exploding right at the level of our windows. Miraculously, Will slept through the chaos even though it felt like our apartment was shaking from all of the explosions. And apparently, we have that to look forward to every night this week. Lucky us!

There is a Taoist temple near our building and they host a fair every year for Chinese New Year. We went yesterday and saw some pretty cool stuff- for instance, this man swallowing a sword....

After that neat trick, he swallowed a 2 inch steel ball and regurgitated it. 

There were all kinds of foods, some yummy looking, others not so much. Like the baby birds on a kebab stick or the mini squids or various other mystery meats.

Steamed dumplings = good

Squid = Not good

It's been so nice having Joel home on his 4 week break! We've had plenty to do to keep us busy.

I know I don't look it in this picture, but I'm actually really excited about my new vacuum, it keeps our house so much cleaner than just sweeping the floors! Thank you, Amazon China!

This is how bundled up Will has to be to stay warm. It's been so cold! We bought an insert for our stroller that is essentially a sleeping bag that we zip him into.

In the lobby of our building, getting ready to brave the cold and head to the temple fair.

 We also made a cool trip to the Lama temple. The best part was a 90 ft Buddha statue that was carved from one tree, but we weren't allowed to take pictures of it.

Since it was so close to the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year), people were burning tons of incense as offerings. The smoke looked so cool billowing between all of the old buildings but it took two showers to get the incense smell out of our hair.

 

 

This is all incense for sale at a little shop  just outside the gate

Thanks for reading!