New Year's Day- January 31.

On Chinese New Year, everyone goes shopping.  We left the boys at home with Grandma and ventured down to the biggest mall in town and got to work.

Good thing there was food to fortify us.  First up was stinky tofu- which was as stinky as you can imagine and impossible to describe.  Naturally, I loved it.

I'm not even joking, but for weeks after my return home, I would wake up in the middle of the night craving the smell and taste of this fermented tofu goodness.

Christina also wanted to get the soft tofu soup- her favorite. 

Salty, fishy delicious goodness.

Too bad this guy missed out on the fun.

  

Here's the mall we visited.  The streets were shut down for traffic so people could shop.  And the haze was a good indication of how many fireworks were set off during the night. 

2014 is the Year of the Horse and there were no shortage of decorations that June would have loved! 

You can see down at the end of the street more fireworks being shot off.  You wouldn't believe how many there were.  We saw people sticking their arms out their windows and shooting them off (made me nervous for their fingers).  And I even saw a truck you could hire to come fire them at your house or business to scare off bad spirits. 

Too bad this guy missed out on the fun.

New Year's Day began 7 days of heavy eating.  Twice a day, we'd go to a hotel where we'd meet up with Christina's family and friends and sit at a table this size.  The food laid out is just how we started the meal.  By the end of the meal 3 hours later, there would be at least 25 dishes jammed on the lazy susan. It was incredible.  By the end of the week, I'd had the chance to eat shrimp, lobster, pork fat, beef stomach and kidneys, lots of whole fish, sashimi, whole ducks, chicken feet, pigs feet, lobster, and famous Shanghai hairy crabs.  Plus, I was usually seated next to a kind auntie who insisted that nothing was better for a pregnant lady that lots of eel and turtle.  

Obligingly, I ate everything. (By the way, the only thing I didn't like was the jellyfish.)  And for the first time in my pregnancy, I felt great.  Surely, a big part of it was not being at home and having the opportunity to sleep often.  But now I think it was probably the only time in my pregnancy that I was eating enough protein and wasn't anemic.  Those aunts knew what they were doing!