I am so happy to tell you that our Tet party was a success!!! I still can't believe how well it went and how good it felt to celebrate Tet with Ella and her/our entire family. My husband and I were so touched that every single family member of ours attended. 1 great grandma, 4 grandparents, 5 uncles, 2 aunts, 1 cousin and 2 friends. Our entire immediate family was here for us and for Ella and that was wonderful. It's nice to have a holiday that is centered on spending time with family.

Everyone was happy to try the new and different Vietnamese foods (more about that in another post :) ) and learn a little more about Tet. We found some great lunar new year decorations and year of the pig napkins that were so cute, so the house looked great. It also gave us a good reason to really clean (which we don't do as often as we should!)

We put out our 'Ten Mice for Tet' book and some other books about Viet Nam. My husband printed out some information about the zodiac animals so people could read up about which year they were born in.

My sister in law made a gorgeous dragon puppet that Ella can use to have a dragon parade when she's a little older. My three year old nephew wasn't too interested :) Maybe next year ;) Ella also got a few li xi envelopes with lucky money in them and the gorgeous Vietnamese Precious Moments doll from her aunt and uncle! I've been eyeing up that doll for a very long time, so she's as much for mommy as she is for Ella!

I hope this; our first Tet party, will be the first of many and our celebrations will just get bigger and better! I need to devote an entire post to the food, so be sure to check back :)