Each year our daughter comes home from school with colorful paper lanterns, hong bao (little red envelopes fulled with money to symbolize wealth and prosperity), and a Chinese greeting she's learned from her teachers.   This year I vowed to go beyond what I've learned from preschool and Kai-Lan reruns and do a little research about the Chinese New Year celebration, local events, and ways we could learn about the traditions at home too.  (But for the record, Nick Jr.'s Ni Hao, Kai-Lan website is a fine place to start: preschoolers will really enjoy the colorful printables, cooking projects, crafts, and games.)

What I learned is that Chinese New Year (a.k.a. the "Spring Festival") is the most important celebration in the Chinese calendar and has some inspiring traditions.  The celebration starts on the first day of the lunar month (January 23 this year) and ends with the Lantern festival on the 15th day of the lunar month when the moon is the brightest (February 6 this year).  During the celebration families and friends feast, celebrate and give each other gifts.  Sounds good to me!

Long lusting after the polished "Smokey Eye" look that Kim Kardashian has made famous, I wanted to find out just how she does it.  Well I found her video lessons (Parts 1- 4) on her site.  Not only did Miss Kim share her secrets for her eyes, but her make-up artist did a nice job of showing great tricks for foundation, blush and mascara application.

Kim also gives her recommendations for mascara (Lancome), lips and more.  Here are the links.  Enjoy!


PART 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAIhlm6niW4&feature=related

PART 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BN7-pcyEZk&feature=related

PART 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wJKOTVn_kM&feature=related

PART 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsVt9Y815D8&feature=related

Unless you were too busy over the holidays plotting the next move of your own Elf on the Shelf, you may have seen the hysterically funny December blog post, Over Achieving Elf on the Shelf Mommies. After falling off my seat as I was reading it, I decided to post it on my personal FB page. I had friends admitting that they laughed so hard they actually snorted some wine while reading it. Apparently my friends and I are not the only ones who fell for the blog, People I Want to Punch in the Throat. In the past few weeks, the blog has become an overnight success.

Mind you, this blog isn’t a flash in the pan, built on one good post. To the contrary, once you visit People I Want to Punch in the Throat, you won’t know what you did without this daily dose of humor, disgust and damning commentary on almost any celebrity or deserving topic on the planet. 

I was so taken with the blog’s witty commentary that I asked the author for an interview. I have to admit; I was a little scared of her reply. I half expected a big fat “NO! What I really want to do is punch people who ask for interviews in the throat!” Fortunately, I was wrong and the utterly charming and magnanimous Jen in fact agreed. So here you go. Everything you wanted to know about the “Elf On The Shelf” mommy!