"Sin Nien Lai Lor" / New Year Coming....

I was brought up in the city thus had celebrated CNY the city's way all along. Feeling of excitement started as early as the 30th nite i.e. The Eve of CNY. Back then when i was a child, mom still practised the "Welcoming of the Prosperity God session" or in cantonese, we called it "Chip Choi San Yeh"! To me it was just another praying session. So there placed the praying table outside the house compound with various food lying on the table. Out of all, the one & only that i had fond memories of was none other than the "Loh Hon Chai"/a type of vegetarian dish with mixtures of veges+glass noodles! Mom would cooked a big pot of that firstly to serve the prosperity god & secondly knowing that we (all my siblings) loved it so much! The praying session usually started at midnight. As soon as mom finished the praying session, she would announced to us that we can start to eat the "Loh Hon Chai". By that hour when we were all still well awake, our stomach would have been very hungry.....so there we rushed happily for a big bowl of it! That was one of the childhood thing that i missed so much.....

Then, the following few days of CNY would be spent visiting family members, relatives & friends. It was the time, we girls got very anxious & excited as we changed ourselves into RED new clothings, received red packets while counting the dollar & cents, stuffed ourselves over with the cookies & not forgetting "GAMBLE "......yes it was our family culture that during CNY, everyone got the licence to gamble.....the elderly folks would seen engaged with 'mahjong' while the young adults as well as the older kids were seen fooling around with 'black jack'!

Living as a chinese, the wife is expected to be part of the husband's family celebrating CNY. This was particularly so when it comes to reunion dinner.

So UNFORTUNATELY, since my parents has only 5 daughters, the impact was that all their 4 married daughters would be celebrating CNY with the in-law family (at least from reunion dinner to 1st day of CNY).

For those that are lucky enough to have their in law staying near their parents, they could just hop over to their parents' place & continue the celebration after the 1st CNY.

But i wasn't that lucky......in the sense that my in-law stayed as far as 3 states away from PJ! We will usually depart for huby's hometown one day prior to our reunion dinner and spent at least the next 3 days of CNY in the 'boring' hometown. By the time, we head back to PJ, most likely than not, the atmosphere of CNY would have vanished !!! Worst still, it can even be time to start WORK !!! That's where hit me MOST....i haven't even got the time to visit my family members or relatives, not to mention friends!

As we left one by one, my parents were left with no choice but to eliminate all the CNY practices that she used to had....to the extend that she no longer even cook the reunion dinner as there is only going to be my unmarried younger sister eating with them. Instead, the 3 of them occassionally joined my other uncle's family for the reunion dinner. It was such a heartbreaking evolvement isn't it....sigh !!

Started since 5 years ago, my parents decided to spend the CNY with a vacation overseas. And i couldn't be more than happy for that. Coming CNY, they will be holidaying in Harbin, China.... wow, an extremely cold place, ehh!!

So, how then was celebration of the CNY in a 'kampung' with my in-law...that would be story for another day, ok?

Though, usually by the time we are back to our home, we are left without much time for partying, i still touch up our house with some CNY stuffs here & there......more so being a year of mouse this year, i just can't resist these cutie little mouse....(though i will ran my life away seeing REAL rat, hahaha)

"Dady mumy are so stingy"....the boys had been begging us to get them the "lion head" for a while but we were again stucked with the dilemma of whether to buy 1 or 2...in fear of the anticipated fight! But then, i was so surprised that evening after work, i was greeted with 2 little cheeky smiles.....yes, they got their LION HEAD finally !!! Boys, now you know how much your poh-poh love you...be good, will ya?