Chúc mừng năm mới

Today was Nathanh's first Tet Parade (mine and Erwin's too).  Tet is the Vietnamese equivalent to Chinese New Year.  The actual day is February 3rd this year but for us the celebrations started today and will end on February 13th!  This was the first year that Vancouver hosted a Tet parade for the Vietnamese Community.  It was a short route but well attended and lots of fun!

We met up with our adoption group and saw many friendly faces of other families who have adopted from Vietnam in the crowd.

Left to right:  Abby, Nathanh, Sarah, and big sister Emily

We were a bit concerned that Nathanh might be afraid of the lion...but apparently not!  The Lion came right up to his stroller.  When I looked in right afterwards Nathanh was laughing!

All week they were forecasting rain but other than it being a bit cold (by Vancouver standards - not the rest of Canada!) it was an absolutely gorgeous day!  We wanted Nathanh to wear his Vietnamese outfit so we put MANY layers underneath to keep him cozy.  The only problem was that he kept pulling off his mittens so his hands kept getting cold.

After the parade we decided to go to, what else, a Vietnamese restaurant with the other families.

Nathanh was very well behaved sitting in a highchair between mommy and daddy.  It was a very long lunch due to the busyness of the restaurant but it sure was nice to catch up with the other families.

A better look at Nathanh's little Vietnamese shirt.

This was the balloon that he got at the parade.  I tied it to one of his toys so it wouldn't float away on him.  He was fascinated with it and played with it for most of the evening!