Rushing the Dragon

Sometime in late December, I looked up the start of Chinese New Year and marked the calendar for the Year of the Dragon to begin on February 2. In January, I printed the planning checklist I put together years ago — with to-dos grouped first by week, then day, then hour, leading up to our family dinner. 

I checked to see when one of our local restaurants was hosting its annual Lion Dance dinner and learned it was February 11, conflicting with the Super Bowl. Why aren't they having it the first weekend of the 15-day celebration, I wondered.

Don got to work drafting the annual family letter, which is more of an exercise in photojournalism. Somehow, he always achieves the perfect balance of text and photos and graciously accepts my edits. (He claims he has to write it because I'm too sensitive to criticism and perhaps has a point.) 

I sent invitations for the dinner on Saturday, February 3, and was disappointed to learn George and Brian had other plans and Sam had to work. I decorated the house and made almond cookies the weekend before, and the letters went out that Monday.

We started preparing food Friday afternoon, with the main task making dumplings. Saturday, we learned that Forrest had a cold and wouldn't be coming. But we still had Grammy and Kelley! We had a delicious dinner and thoroughly enjoyed each others' company. I shared pictures on Facebook, as usual.

I was still enjoying the satisfaction of a successfully planned and executed celebration the following Friday, February 9, when Chinese New Year announcements started popping up on Facebook and in news headlines. "That's odd," I thought. "Why is everyone so late?"

Of course, no one was late — I was a week early. Somehow, back in December, I got the date wrong and never realized it. Just like that fall in Colorado when I changed the clocks a week before I was supposed to then wondered why people were leaving for work so early on Monday morning. Sometimes I'm a bit too sure of myself.

My apologies to the Year of the Rabbit for shorting it a week.