Zen Mama

The past week has been miserably cold, with temperatures dropping down to -9 degrees Celsius. After living in sub tropical Hong Kong for 16 years, my body has long forgotten that I was born in the Windy City of Chicago, where we grew accustomed to temps way colder than that! Today, it was only -2 but we had our first snowfall of the winter season... A whole 2 inches (laughable by Chicago standards) which the kids were all excite about. So we got all dressed in our ski wear and went up to our rooftop to try to build snowmen. After sweeping up most of the snow on our rooftop terrace, we had enough snow to build this mini snowman.

January 30th would've been my Dad's birthday. This time of year always evokes memories of him. He used to lead the Hip Sing Association lion dance troupe in the Argyle area of Chicago. I still remember him teaching the twenty and thirty something year old Chinese guys how to do the dance while he played the big drum. My brother and I would be on the sidelines watching every move with glee. Then on the usually freezing day of the performance, we would get all wrapped up in our winter snow gear and follow the lion dance parade around all the Chinese businesses in the neighbourhood until our toes couldn't take the cold anymore. So every time I see a lion dance around Chinese New Year, a wave of memories come flashing back into my head. We took Alexandre and Jean Michel to see the lion dance parade at the Hotel de Ville in Paris last weekend, and I was impressed by the thousands of people who were there to see it, and even more amazed at the number of Chinese associations wh...