Every Chinese New Year (CNY) is almost the same. During the eve of CNY, I would go back to my in-laws place for lunch while its dinner at my parent's place. On the actual day itself, I start off the day by cooking rice and a chup chye (mixed vegetable with mock abalone, mushrooms, bean curd skin etc etc) for breakfast. Then off to my mum's place to wish them happy new year by offering tea and collecting our ang baos(red packets). My children would also offer me tea as a sign of respect. It is a good tradition that I would like to keep.
 |
| Wonderful to see how much Caleb loves Baby Jadon |
 |
| My family and my parents |
 |
| My family with my parents, brother and sis-in-law |
After that, I would visit my in-law's place, then to my grandma-in-law's place for lunch where I would indulge in my favourite fried prawn roll and pig stomach soup. After that, I would go back to my mum-in-law's place to wait for relatives to visit.
Throughout the whole day, the relatives would all hop from house to house to visit, starting with my mum-in-law's place. It's interesting..Then we would end the night by having dinner at the last house where we would get to eat the all popular pig stomach soup with extra punch from the peppercorns! Its the best pig stomach soup I have tried so far.
So the first day of CNY is always a challenge both mentally and physically. But once the day ends, I feel very accomplished that I survived after visiting about 5-6 houses till night.
On the 2nd day of CNY, it would be my side of relatives where we would gather at this house where we would indulge in carrot cake and yam cake. So that's why I named her "carrot cake aunt". That would be my lunch there. As for the children, they would eat a little to fill their stomachs but throughout our time at 'carrot cake aunty's' place, they would be out in the corridor running about.
Even though every year- the adults would be in the house eating and talking over their food while the children would be outside playing in the corridor, it is also always different as every year, we get to see how the children behave with one another as they grow older and by God's grace, there are new additions to the family as well that makes the visiting so much more interesting.
 |
| My mum with her grandson, Jadon |
 |
| My aunt (father's sister) who seem to get younger and slimmer each year |
 |
| All our children should call him," Uncle"! |
 |
| David trying to carry his uncle |
 |
Aw..how sweet
|
 |
| Rare shot with most of the cousins |
Anyway, though festivities tire me out because of whole day visitations and late night sleeps,it also energises me through the New year goodies (All-time favourites would be the bak kwa and pineapple tarts) and food!
In a nutshell, CNY is always good for family to get together and bond. Without a festival like this, people may just give excuses that they are too busy to meet up or just lazy.
Now, probably looking forward to the next year as baby Jadon will then be running about and playing with the rest of the children!
Wishing everyone a great year ahead!
