Happy New Year! It is officially the year of the pig. The part of me that is unquestionably a part of western culture has problems taking a pig seriously. The intellectual part of my brain understands cultural differences and symbolism.

The Korean new year is all about family. In many cases, it’s about returning to your roots. We didn’t specifically celebrate the Korean new year this week-end, but we have made it all about family. On Saturday, we went to Sesame Street Live, our Valentine’s present to my son, and then we had lunch at the Hockeytown Café. We then called our parents so that my son could tell them about Elmo and Super Grover.

Today, we celebrated with a different kind of family – friends. I often like to remind people that families come in all shapes and sizes. There were six adults today and five kids. We were missing two adults and three kids, but it was still barely controlled chaos and fun. We enjoyed pizza and presents. We weren’t able to get-together for Christmas this year so we had Christmas this year so we had Christmas in February. We had the fun without the stress.

I thought about trying to put a little Korea new year into my party. No one would have minded, but I’m really circling back to the fact that it’s not natural for me. I really don’t consider Korean culture to be a regular part of my life. Pizza and cookies were just much more natural and comfortable.

Prior to my son, I didn’t work at all to bring Korean culture to my life. If it fell into my lap, I embraced it. I respect the culture too much to do things half way. If I am going to be Korean, I need to be Korean. I don’t want to play at being Korean. I just have to stick with what’s real to me.

If you would like to comment, but not on this site, please e-mail me at adoptkoreablog@adoptionmail.com.