Our family celebrated the new year on January 1, and we celebrated the new year again today--this occasion was the Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year (our celebration was two days early because the weekend was when we could all meet). My wife and I and the kids had dinner with grandma and cousins and aunts and uncles at China Wind Restaurant in Portland. The food was fine, but more important was the opportunity for the kids to see grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins, to exchange gifts with them, to laugh with them, and to share stories with them.
Family gatherings allow families to stay connected despite the hustle and bustle of modern life. I wish for my children to grow up with relationships developed within the extended family, to have a notion of "family" that extends beyond the nuclear family to include everyone on my side of the family and my wife's side of the family, and to be supported in their growing lives by that extended family.
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