Fireworks!!

Now we were in Dezhou to celebrate Chinese New Year with our friend, Caroline, and her family. We have stayed there before, but I wanted to tell you about them again. It makes a difference on how Chinese New Year is celebrated. They live in a small village where many of the villagers are family members; aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents. They live in a small home with electricity, but very little running water. There is no bathroom inside. Their bathroom is a bucket in a hole in the ground. Not a big deal for us anymore. Does not bother us. The kitchen is very small, so cooking is not an easy thing for their mother to do. The dining room, TV room and food preparation room is also her parents bedroom. So you can imagine how hard it is to host people in their home.

They are a very poor family, however they are a very giving family. In fact, they did so much for us while we were there. Gary and I are so grateful and honored that they allowed us in their home for the celebration.

They even have our picture up on their wall from the last time we stayed there. We are so honored.

This was lunch the first day.

Caroline's mom and Caroline made dumplings (jiaozi) for our Chinese New Years Eve dinner. Homes where there is more money have a more extravagant feast, but we were happy with the dumplings. I love dumplings.

Now in a small village, they don't just do a few fireworks. Each family unit (extended family unit) lights their own fireworks, so the night sky is lit up all over the village and other villages near with fireworks. It was actually pretty amazing for Gary and I. We have seen many fireworks shows and had many in our own neighborhood put on by Jason Brown. Those previous fireworks shows could not even come close to this one. It was truly spectacular. I could put pictures of them, but that would not do it justice. Take a look at the following videos. Then you can have a small understanding of what we experienced. The sound was immense as was the amount of fireworks used.

We had a lovely time. We had dumplings for three days. We met and took pictures with many different people. They had a doctor in the village come look at Gary's foot. She pushed, tugged, moved and basically made him cry out in pain. However, the next day, the ankle and foot felt better. The swelling had gone down and the bruising had decreased. I am a fine of traditional Chinese medicine, that's for sure.

New Years Day they go visiting family and family visits them. It was a fun relaxing time in Dezhou!!