February Culture

For my February culture club meeting we had

a decorated dinner and discussed the celebrations

of different cultures that take place at this time of year.

We had a spicy southern dish served with crepes made by

Angie & Kelly then chinese chicken salad and pot stickers.

With the american south and China represented we then

talked about Mardi Gras and the Chinese new year as well

as the origins of St. Valentine. Everybody got recipes for

Kings bread to kick of their own mardi gras, then I handed

out money in red envelopes

(just one tradition of the chinese new years)

and read all the chinese zodiacs...this year is

the year of the Tiger.

I am a year of the Rat... sounds creepy but so many things

were in line with how I feel my attitudes about life are

and what I think my personal strengths might be:

- intense, meticulous, charismatic,

-sensitive hardworking, industrious

-sociable, artistic,over-ambitious

-Their intuition is strong and are always on the

lookout for opportunities to better themselves.

-One of the Rat's biggest fault is that they try to do

too much at once.

-They have a good memory and are extremely inquisitive

-Rats have great respect for their parents and dote on their

own children. They love their home.

Family life is very important to them

-are great problem solvers

-They love parties and other large gatherings

(And although its easy to ignore the bad characteristics of any

zodiac maybe I should pay attention to and try to root out

and fix what is mentioned, when found in me....

cause I know I have many many faults that I need to work on)

More of the negatives of being a Rat (which I KNOW I have):

-One can always tell when Rats are upset. They become

edgy, very nervous, and quite nagging

-They often buy things they don't need and tend to save

everything. Souvenirs and sentimental odds and ends are

found tucked away everywhere.

-Can be manipulative, vindictive, self-destructive, obstinate

Very thought provoking.

{For the centerpieces I made bunches of tulips or

of roses in different shades of red in glass cubes

lined with sliced strawberries}

For our dessert table Cassandra made the most

exquisite meringue cupcakes layered with fresh raspberries,

creme fraiche, and raspberry curd. Melt in your mouth

delicious.

I decorated some fudge brownies with colored

powdered sugar dusted through stencils that I

had cut out of cardstock.