Happy New Year - Chúc Mừng Năm Mới from our Family to Yours! Year of the Dragon

After visiting and covering the Lunar New Year celebrations at the Irvine Spectrum Center my mom, Scott, Lucky and I headed over to my maternal grandparents’ home to celebrate the new year with them. My dad and brothers met us at my grandparents’ home and we had lunch and took family photos.

We also dressed up in traditional Vietnamese garments, our ao dais, had lunch, did li xi (receive the red money envelopes) from our grandparents and Scott & I filmed the trend where you run in opposite directions to see which person your dog follows. I typically don’t wear red, but since the year of the dragon is my year - I had to get a red ao dai. Really I should have gotten one when I was visiting Vietnam (my mo had gotten a custom ao dai made - but it was from a fancy store for almost $200), and I wanted to be more economical with my spending. I went to the Asian Garden Mall - Phước Lộc Thọ where there are a ton of ao dai shops and I found the perfect red ao dai that fit me to a T, and also had a pattern so it was too plain, but it wasn’t over the top. I also had worn this ao dai to work and my co-worked had a gold hat and pants that I swapped out with my red pants and it was a really nice contrast. Also the colors red and gold are considered very lucky, and I need all the luck I can get this year. It’s said that with your animal year, usually comes bad luck, so to ward off the bad spirits and energy you should wear red with something that was given to you by a family member or spouse. Scott and I got each other red bracelets to help with this this year - so hopefully all the good lucky, fortun abundance and everything in between will come to us this year! Check out some of the traditions we follow leading up to new years day! And as we say in Vietnamese, Chúc Mừng Năm Mới!