Selfish of me, if you are in the mood could you share a little of your food tradition. Maybe a pic and a list of the goodness? Food traditions are a big deal to me. TIA.
I have just a kernel of a contribution to make to this thread, since I'm in Wisconsin, not California, and also because I'm not a native celebrator of Tet (New Year), but I want to salivate over everyone else just like TT so:

My girlfriend whose family is Vietnamese, scored a couple of bahn chung on a recent trip home and we've been saving them up for tet. This is a big square of sticky rice stuffed with mung bean paste and fatty pork. Sliced and heated in a skillet. The end result to my midwestern palate is kinda like corn meal mush, but made good with bean paste and pork. Ideally eaten with pickled dried (dried, then pickled) daikon, but we did without yesterday.

Her calls back home suggested that we were missing out in a pretty serious way, but mood-wise I think she was plugged into the spirit of the day, lots of reminiscing and calling people. I can't wait to experience the real thing in person.