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Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy Chinese New Year everyone! I had sent out an Instagram post a few days ago of my youngest boy Daniel dancing while we were watching the annual CCTV Chinese New Year celebration wishing everyone a Happy CNY. May the Lord greatly bless you all and give you favor in the year of the Dragon!

A special shout-out to my beautiful wife Elizabeth! Happy Valentine’s Day sweetheart! I love you with all of my heart and I am very thankful God brought us together!

Your hubby

I wanted to post this message earlier during the holiday, but this new year has gotten off to a rough start for the International New Year and the CNY. The Howard family got sick with the flu back during Christmas break and it took us some time to get over it, unfortunately, the boys caught the flu again over our CNY break. Our plans have been canceled and we have been a lot less active in Macau because of it. That being said, I am very hopeful for 2024! Especially since it is my animal year!

While we maybe didn’t get to see much in person this year, we have been watching certain events on TV and online. I am hoping that we can make the final Macau CNY parade on the 17th, this event will also be celebrating the 25th anniversary of Macau being returned to Mainland China.

My son on the other hand has been more interested in getting some rest because of him catching the flu and collecting more Pokemon cards! I think it is a fun little hobby that we can enjoy together, even though I do not know a majority of the Pokemon now. I only know the originals really well. That being said, I thought it was kind of cool that they released several Promo cards to celebrate the CNY in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Apparently these special edition promo cards were not released in Mainland China. I was a little disappointed that these cards only have a small Pikachu stamp, I think it would have been better if they had a card where Pikachu was dressed up in the New Year clothing like on the package!

The photo above was taken on the last day of school before the Chinese New Year. Noah ventured out with me to try this coffee place that I’ve been wanting to try since we moved to Macau. I grabbed a hot coffee while Noah enjoyed an iced Ovaltine! As you can see, he dressed up in his CNY clothing for school also!

Anyway, this New New Year, I only have a few resolutions. I’ve not been keeping up with them as I’d like but thankfully we have a second new year to start over! All jokes aside, I’ve amended most of my resolutions and I’ve tried to make them more realistic. New Year Resolutions for 2024 version 2.0! Hopefully, by sharing them, you guys can help me stay accountable!

• Complete the entire Bible for a second time round this year.
• Grow closer in my relationships, especially with the Lord, my family, and my friends.
• Obtain my Church Worker’s License with the IPHC!
• Stay more active and healthy through regular lifestyle changes.
• Reach an A1-A2 Level in Portuguese by the end of the year.
• Reach an A2 Level in my Cantonese by the end of the year.
• Reach a B1-B2 level in my Mandarin by the end of the year (focusing on the Taiwanese Dialect of Putonghua).
• I think I will share my Bujo for 2024 to share some more details about the goals mentioned above. Maybe it will even help inspire others!

Anyway, I’ll keep you guys posted on how the New New Year’s Resolutions go throughout the year. There are several exciting announcements we are waiting to share with you all, so please stay tuned for that. In the meantime, I am working on some more entries that revolve around some places/ things here in Macau. I also hope to share that with you guys soon! God bless and again, Happy CNY everyone!

~ by branhow on February 14, 2024.

Posted in Archived, China, Macau, Personal
Tags: cctv, China, chinese new year, CNY, Dragon Year, Macau