Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone. This is not an ordinary new year though. Yes, it's Brady's first New Year's celebration, but more importantly it's the year of the Pig! That's right, this year is my, and my friends', year! It only comes around every 12 years, so we have to take advantage of every day we can!

For those not familiar with the glorious traits of the pig (also referred to as the boar), here's the rub...

The Pig is a fun and enlightening personality blessed with patience and understanding. People born under the sign of the Pig enjoy life and all it has to offer, including family and friends. They are honest and thoughtful and expect the same of other people. Pigs can be perceived as oblivious or gullible because they do care about others so much that they will do just about anything for a friend in need.

Next year is Irene's year, the year of the Rat, but that's a full year off so we'll post information about that in due time. For now, it's all about the Pigs! Irene has decorated the house quite a bit to celebrate and Brady woke up early in excitement (okay, he's a bit congested and can't sleep, but he likes looking at the house decorations).

Chinese New Year has a lot of superstitious customes and traditions that go along with it. Basically, we are not supposed to do any cleaning of the house, wash our hair, or really do anything except celebrate the day. It's very similar to the US New Year's day, except in Chinese tradition this is done for good fortune purposes whereas in the US it's typically done so you don't miss any of the College Football Bowl games. Also, you're not supposed to use foul language on this day in Chinese customs, whereas it's close to impossible not to use foul language on the US New Year's day, due to the watching of said College Football games.

Happy New Year to everyone and let's celebrate the ushering in of the year of the Pig! Did I mention this is my year?.....

Brady is wearing his red PJ's underneath his jacket. We put his jacket on because he got up early and the house was not warmed up yet.