Family holidays have always been important to Chris and Shih Han. For Chris the big holidays are Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thanksgiving is a time to cook plenty of food and have crowds of people over.

Christmas is another day of food, but first there are presents. Weeks before Christmas we start wrapping presents. This is a tradition that started with Chris’ mother. She would wrap every package differently. Chris and his siblings would compete with each other to come up with the most creative wrapping. In recent years Shih Han has joined in. The result is a kaleidoscope of color under the Christmas tree with curly cues, loop-de-loops, stars, flowers, snowflakes and shooting stars.

On Christmas morning Chris plays Santa, a job he inherited from his father. In no time the beautifully wrapped gifts are a pile of crumpled paper and ribbons.

For Shih Han the big family holiday of the year is Chinese New Year in February. Shih Han’s entire extended family descends on his home town for a week of get-togethers and eating. Being the oldest, Shih Han’s father hosts a dinner at home on New Years Eve. The next day the parents of Shih Han’s brother-in-law host a dinner at their house. Shih Han’s sister and brother each host a lunch at a restaurant. The week is largely filled with eating, waiting to eat or recovering from eating too much. Children are everywhere. They are given gifts of cash in red envelops—for Chinese red is the color of prosperity.

We are looking forward to sharing all these holidays with our child.