Happy New Year!

Sorry about the lack of Caturday, folks--I had to celebrate the Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year is actually today, but I decided to have my dinner party on Saturday. So I spent all day preparing for that. I made wontons, then cleaned the house, then got started on the main dishes: vegetable fried rice, roast chicken Chinese style, firecracker beef, and beef with hoisin sauce. I had about a dozen guests. I think the party went really well. I handed out lucky money and we did a little craft--I got little dragon cutouts, which were covered in black scratch-off stuff, and the paper underneath was multicolored, so you scratch off the black stuff in pretty patterns and it looks really cool. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. I was seriously exhausted by the end of the day, though, and unfortunately, I had not fully recovered by the time my Sunday guests arrived.


It's Natalie, Aaron's sister! This is about as close as Eve would let her get. I think she was still traumatized from all the people the night before.


George had no such qualms. She loves Natalie, and came right to her.

George was also very interested in Mary, Aaron and Natalie's mother.

Pippin didn't really join us; I think that, like Eve, he was ready to go back to normal! I did drag him out for some pettings, but he ran away again before I could snag a picture.

Mary and Natalie brought me some very tasty cookies. After we sat and chatted and pet cats for a while, we went to the mall for lunch and some shopping. Natalie got her favorite steak and cheese sandwich, Mary got something extremely tasty-looking from the Great Steak Company (or whatever it's called), and I got gyros. Yum!

After we ate, we did a little shopping. I got Natalie a Christmas present from Limited Too, and we also went to Hot Topic, where I found a cute top on clearance and Natalie got a skull-covered bandana. We did a little browsing at New York & Co., since I'm going to a wedding on Saturday, but I didn't find anything. After that we headed back to the house, chatted some more and pet the cats some more, and then Natalie and Mary set off back to West Virginia. It was very nice to see them--I'm really glad they came for a visit.

This weekend I'll be sure to post Caturday on time, wedding notwithstanding!