Our CNY Eve....

We headed for the hometown a day before EVE of CNY and thank god the traffic was smooth flowing, arriving as expected.....making suffice time for a dinner with my in-law. So the night was spent recovering.....

There were only 4 of us + my 2 in-law + my single bro-in-law participating in our re-union dinner so i think it's not so worthy to spend so much time & effort with the preparation. Thus, the way i looked at it (as compared to many others), our re-union dinner was rather simple & easy. Hence there were nothing much to showcase.

But this year, my MIL did an extra dish......the "chun kuen"/chinese sausage?? And i gave my helping hand with the wrapping process.........

Gee......i wonder how clean was the table but that was what my MIL instructed to do so i 'lantak' sajalah...

LOBAK for sale......eh sai boh ??

Then, for the teo chew, the main dish on the table for almost every other meal was none other than the STEAMBOAT !!! Well, save for the slice abalone, the rest of the ingredients were only those boring fish balls...balls...balls...and other family of the balls !!!

That's why no picture to show...

No, those were my FIL's fingers & not mine...... Initially, i reckon that having steamboat as the main dish on CNY was rather rare & unusual.....at least for my Cantonese family. For the past 27 years before i got married, i have never had any steamboat within my family during big day like CNY. But after browsing thru many updates from other bloggers around, i notice that it was in fact quite a common practise in many families to have steamboat during CNY and that obviously proved me wrong .............................. wrong for thinking that my in-law family was weird, hahaha!!

Besides the main dish, there were also :

- 'kampung' steam chicken (very authentic type);

- teo chew steam fish;

- stewed pork with yam (we paid the neighbour to cook this);

- mix vegies;

u see all steam ones...easy & healthy!

BUT

of course not without the following 2 important dishes;

CRAB (also steam what)

BIG SAMBAL PRAWN (the best of all...slurpp)

Sean enjoying his crab.........

And so was little Scot .....

It was more of the father v sons conversations/catch up thru out the whole dinner and in teo chew of course which i still can't fully understand so i just shut up & eat eat eat......

This year, my SIL was doing confinement at my in-law's place, her bb boy was only 3 weeks old and she brought along her maid so it was so delightful to have a maid helping with the house chores so i was even spared of washing the dishes after meal, hahaha.......

Here's Sean with the new addition to the family, Kendrick boy!

Once dinner was finished, it was time to get dressed up for the CNY eve mass at St. Michael Church.

Here's my little ah pek getting all ready.....

With cousins Kat & Karol, SIL elder daughters!

Due to the closer age gap, both my boys were fighting for this cousin (from wana hold her hands to wanting to sit beside her & etc etc) until the poor girl got so scared of them....

"Hopefully when they are grown up, they won't be fighting over the same girl too"

The 3 kepohchee/do-re-mi were such a disturb to the mass....

Finally, we seeked 'PEACE' & 'BLESSINGS' for the HENG family !!!

As the mass started at 10p.m. we had well prepared the kids with a good afternoon nap so they were all very energetic, lively & happy despite a slightly longer than the usual 1 hour mass. Additions to the routine were 'angpow' packets & mandarin oranges distribution to the kids as well as the commemoration of the ancestors session. Then after the service, there were even a little party thrown outside the church with various CNY cookies served to all. Also seen were in-law's old friends & other relatives that resided around the same area and they had a good catch up too.

Despite the clocking of the mid night, the kids were enjoying themselves savoring the oranges & junkies!

We were all tired & sleepy but it was well the worth as we experienced yet another warm CNY's eve again. I bet everyone retired the night as calmly & as gratifying as I am.